CAMBRIDGE (WCMH)–Tell Timon to bulk up–A new study shows that meerkats try to outgrow their rivals and become the dominant members of their groups.

According to National Geographic, meerkats live in communities of up to 50 individuals and are often very cooperative with one another. Meerkats will groom each other, keep a collective eye out for predators, and even babysit. But that community equality does not extend to reproductive duties–a dominant pair of meerkats will take on most of the work for the whole colony. These meerkats are usually among the oldest and heaviest.

The pair’s children assist with raising the young, but they also try to climb up the ranks. As National Geographic explains:

“Females either wait for the dominant matriarch to die or try to displace her, whereupon the next oldest and heaviest individual takes her spot. Males try to displace the heads of other groups, but the result is the same: The biggest challenger takes over from the deposed.”

A new study published Wednesday in Nature magazine found that meerkats will try to out-eat one another and gain weight quickly, so they can take their place in line to be part of the dominant couple.

Several scientists studied the behaviors of wild meerkats from the Kalahari desert in southern Africa. They found that individual meerkats “adjust their growth to the size of their closest competitor,” and theorize that “similar plastic responses to the risk of competition may occur in other social mammals, including domestic animals and primates.”

Here is how the study worked, according to Smithsonian Magazine:

Researchers split meerkats into pairs, and gave the smaller of the two half of a hard-boiled egg twice a day for several weeks–essentially, they were eating 50 percent more than their litter mates who did not get an egg treat. Other pairs served as control groups, with neither meerkat getting an extra snack.

After three months, the scientists compared sizes. The meerkats whose littermates got the hard-boiled eggs weighed much more than their control group counterparts, since they altered their diets and ate more food. The scientists say they were trying to match their growth to that of the meerkats getting the egg.What others are clicking on: