Inbreeding impairs the meerkat

Inbreeding affects 44 per cent of meerkats in the wild, causing them to be smaller and less likely to survive, a 20-year study has found.

Researchers, led by a team from the University of Edinburgh, examined the births, deaths, DNA and movement between colonies of 2,000 meerkats in the Kuruman River Reserve in the Kalahari Desert, South Africa.