Editorial September 4, 1989 Issue

Teamwork

Ann Kenrick

There were ten of them and they stood about ten inches tall. The Nature film showed the life story of one family of meerkats in Africa's Kalahari Desert. For months a British zoologist and a cameraman studied these mongooses and came up with the remarkable BBC television film Meerkats United. The secret of these little creatures' survival in very harsh desert conditions seems to lie in their teamwork.

There are ten to twelve meerkats in each extended family group, and they help each other do everything. Each adult takes a turn at baby-sitting and protecting youngsters; they share their food as well as jointly defend their community. One team member is always on guard, perched upright in a tree, keeping watch while the others forage and dig for grubs. When the babies grow up a little, each one is apprenticed to an adult who teaches him the rudiments of grub hunting and how to protect himself from predators. In the meerkats' world, one lives for all, and all for one.

These natural expressions of caring and cooperation hint at the beauty and order that exist in God's perfect, spiritual universe, where creation is wholly spiritual and never material.

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