Conceptual figure representing meerkat foraging schedules and corresponding shifts in the gut microbiota, based on findings from 26. a) Meerkats forage mostly in the morning and again before dusk to avoid the midday heat, although during the cool dry season they can also forage through the entire day; b) Oscillations in selected taxa, highlighting peaks in Clostridia and Bacteroidia in the morning, and Bacilli in the afternoon; c) Diurnal shift in many taxa, especially Clostridia, cause community-wide structuring of the gut microbiota according to time of day, as represented by a PCoA plot.