Comments on: Crowd-pleasing Meerkat Pups

By: Chari Mercier

Chari Mercier — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:08:35 +0000

Hi, Meerkat Fans!! Writing back to let you all know that Meerkat Manor will be back on Animal Planet in late May and early June. Here are the programs that they have ready for us to watch: ” Meerkat Manor, Next Generation” , June 6; ” Meerkat Manor, The Story Begins” , May 25 and30: ” Making of Meerkat Manor” , May 25; ” Science of Meerkat Manor” , May 30. ” Meerkat Manor, Next Generation” is the continuation of Rocket Dog’s role as dominant female of the Whiskers clan after the death of Flower, and the Whiskers being split up into two groups. This will be very interesting watching! Been wondering about Japhod, Yousarian, and some of the other meerkats in that group.
How are the 4 newest pups and the meerkat mob doing at SDZ lately? Haven’t heard too much about them in a little over a month now. Hope everything is still going good there! Has Ngami gotten pregnant again? Hope not; she needs to wait a little while so that she can be a real mom to her 4 babies that she has now. Then, when she does have her next litter of pups, she will definitely have the skills necessary to be the momma meerkat that she can really be and take good care of her pups.
Please write another update about the meerkats, ok? Looking forward to seeing that soon!
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL

Moderator’s note: We’ll see if Laura can provide an update on Ngami and her pups.

By: Chari Mercier

Chari Mercier — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:14:35 +0000

Barbara (#17), what newsletter are you talking about? Is this newsletter on a website that you know about, or a newsletter that you have to pick up somewhere? I would love to see the pics of these cute little meerkat pups! Let us know about this, ok? Write back!
Thanks,
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL

Moderator’s note: Our readers are referring to the San Diego Zoo’s free weekly e-newsletter, which has a photo of an adult meerkat and 4 pups. The photo is actually a file photo taken a few years ago. But our Zoo photographer just took some new photos of the current meerkat pups and as soon as those become available, we will post them with Laura’s blog. Here’s a link to the e-letter: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/newsletter/newsletter.html

You can sign up to receive the e-letters here: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/newsletter/index.html

By: barbara

barbara — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:45:55 +0000

Check out the pups picture on the current news letter, they are just to cute

By: Chari Mercier

Chari Mercier — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:03:33 +0000

Hi! Forgot to let all of you meerkat fans know about a movie coming out this year. It’s called ” Queen of the Kalahari” , and it’s about Flower, the dominant female meerkat of the Whiskers meerkat mob that has been a part of the ” Meerkat Manor” series on Animal Planet. I think this will be a great little movie because it follows Flower and her dominant male partner in their daily lives and building one of the largest meerkat mob families in the Kalahari region. This group has been researched and studied for 10 years or more by the Cambridge University researchers and other research groups, and they have detailed records of this entire family, including the meerkats that were lost due to predators, starvation, and other reasons. I also think that this movie is a tribute to Flower’s tenacity, power, ruthlessness, fighting spirit when confronted with danger and mob wars, and the love that she had towards her family even tho she had to evict at least 3 of her daughters from the mob due to ” family infractions” , namely getting pregnant. By the end of Meerkat Manor’s 3rd season last year, this mob numbered over 50 meerkats before Flower was killed by a poisonous snake trying to protect her newest litter of pups. So, this is a tribute to one of the best loved and greatest meerkat mob leaders that these researchers have seen in years, and I can’t wait for Animal Planet to get ” Meerkat Manor 4″ back on so that I can find out how the Whiskers are doing after Rocket Dog took over and the mob has been split up. Gonna be interesting to say the least!
Well, I hope that your own meerkat family is doing well, especially the 4 new babies. Have the other babies from the other 2 litters been back with this family? Hope so!
When I find out when this movie is due to come out, I’ll let you all know!
BYE!!!!
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL

By: Paul & Julie

Paul & Julie — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:21:03 +0000

Hi,
We were at the SDZoo on March 21st and discovered the meerkats there. We won’t soon forget what we saw. At first the meerkats seemed to be relaxed and behaving peacefully. Then, several rushed to one side of their enclosure. Then, they rushed to the other side and a commotion ensued. We walked over to see more closely and one meerkat was lying on its back, while several others attacked it! There were so many of them, biting and making noises and really attacking this one animal. Not just one on one fight, but like the whole group against that one! It looked like a full grown meerkat. We tried to make some noise, clapping hands and telling them to ” play nice,” all to no avail, until a zoo employee came by and shook a very large key ring at them. They scattered and the one on its back ran off far away from the others.

What was the behavior we saw? We are very curious! We also hope that one meerkat will be okay!

Thanks!

By: Chari Mercier

Chari Mercier — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:43:09 +0000

Hi, you all! Glad to read about the meerkat pups and how well they are doing. So there are 4 pups?? OK; still a good number for Ngami to take care of. I’m also glad that those lessons that you taught Ngami when the pups were born have taken hold so well. Hopefully, she’ll remember everything when she has another litter of pups later on. The pup with the deformed leg sounds like he’s doing very well and has adjusted to his disability. He’s a very lucky pup to be at SDZ, tho. Usually, meerkat pups with deformities do not live very long in the wild, which was described on Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet a few months ago. That was the episode about one of Flower’s pups that had a front leg deformity, and he had a hard time keeping up with the family when they went out foraging. Unfortunately, that pup only lived about a month. But this little guy at SDZ will have a great life with his meerkat family and you all taking good care of all of them.
I’m also looking for some pics of these meerkat pups, too! Hope you all can get some pics online ASAP, like real quick! I’ve seen pics of them on the NZ website and on TV, and they are fun to watch and cute to look at.
I’m waiting for NZ to get a meerkat cam up online so that I can watch them on that website. Wouldn’t that be fun? Oh well……! Maybe SDZ can get a cam up in the meerkat exhibit!
Gonna go for now. Take care of this cute meerkat family, and let us know of any news about them and any new babies.
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL

By: Michelle Matarrese

Michelle Matarrese — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:15:58 +0000

It would be great if you turned the t.v. cam on the family. I am disabled amd spend hours each day watching the pandas.

Michelle Matarrese

By: Sayuri

Sayuri — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:00:54 +0000

Photo in the weekly newsletter is super cute! Is it possible to add that to this blog entry?

By: Betty Mizer

Betty Mizer — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:29:39 +0000

The Meerkats are my favorite zoo animals. I visited our local zoo a few weeks ago. The family of the cuties were out in full force. Keep up the good work.

By: Susan (UK)

Susan (UK) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:22:01 +0000

Thank you moderator, for your note on the Su Lin post, about Meerkat pictures. I shall look forward to them.
The latest Meerkat info is very interesting and at least there was a photo of some little ones. So cute and adorable. At one of the wildlife parks I visit you can pre-book a feeding session with the Meerkats and on one occasion the man who was feeding them had them running up the inside of his trouser legs and down the inside of his jumper!