Can we detect when meerkats intend to produce a call?

Meerkats will be observed and recorded early morning, immediately after emergence from their sleeping burrow. Each day a designated social group will be visited before sunrise and as the individual animals begin to emerge the exact time, individual ID`s and GPS location will be noted. 

As meerkats begin their morning sunning behaviour a focal individual will be selected by the following criteria: Age: adult or sub-adult. Behaviour: sunning - standing or sitting facing the sun while not expressing any other activities (grooming, foraging, digging, eating etc`). Position: positioned at least one meter away from its nearest neighbour. 

The observation will continue for up to 10 minutes to minimise potential disturbance to the focal individual. In each observation day up to four focal individuals will be recorded. 

The daily observation will continue until four focals are recorded or untill more than half of the group left the borrow and started foraging.