ナショナルジオグラフィックさんのインスタグラム写真 - (ナショナルジオグラフィックInstagram)「Photo by @jenguyton | This Earth Month, let's celebrate the scientists who help us better understand and protect our world. Before I was a full-time storyteller, I was a scientist. One of my first research jobs involved spending a year tracking meerkats through the desert, recording every little behavior. In this photo, researcher Jamie Samson weighs wild but habituated meerkats as part of Cambridge University's Kalahari Meerkat Project. One of the longest running animal behavior studies, this project aims to understand how social mammals operate. Meerkats' highly social behavior have made them a model for studying the social evolution in mammals. Capturing the weight of each individual through time is crucial; in addition to tracking the growth of young meerkats, it can also be an indicator of pregnancy or stress. A few drops of water, a scarce resource here in the desert, are used to lure the meerkats onto the scale. #EarthMonth」4月29日 22時00分