Meerkat

Meerkats are small, highly intelligent South African animals, and a member of the mongoose family.

The Real World
The meerkat or suricate (Suricata suricatta) is a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats, but some super-families have 50 or more members. In captivity, meerkats have an average life span of 12–14 years, and about half this in the wild

The Lion King World
In The Lion King 1½, meerkats are shown to be self-loathing animals, but they still manage to work together in their clans. Timon is the most important meerkat in The Lion King, helping to raise young Simba along with Pumbaa.

Trivia

 * The meerkats in The Lion King universe are anthropomorphic,Fewcmeerkats.jpg as they walk on two legs when meerkats can only stand on their hind legs.
 * A real meerkat from the Fellow Earthlings Wildlife Center was the model for Timon.
 * Meerkat groups in The Lion King 1½ have no leaders, and yet still manage to function normally. This is incredibly unrealistic.
 * Meerkats in The Lion King 1½ swim, and this is also unrealistic, because it has been shown that meerkats do not like to be in water.
 * Meerkats in TLK have no whiskers. Again, unrealistic.
 * The tails of the meerkats in The Lion King stay rigid, while a real meerkat's tail is very flexible.
 * The meerkats in TLK have ears that are nothing like those of real meerkats, and, according to Pam Wallberg (who runs FEWC) this is because the animators said "This is Disney, we're about ears."