See
the meerkats at Tropical World
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Two
weeks ago two baby meerkats were born into the meerkat family that
live in the desert house at Tropical World. This is the first week
that the adults have bought the new babies outside for visitors
to see as they had been keeping them within the safety of their
burrows.
The
two-week old bundles of fluff (named Gary and Dave after the supervisors)
can be seen playing games with the adults and already love being
the centre of attention.
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| An
adult stands on duty |
Meerkats
are very mischievous and often stand on watch to guard against predators.
Each
pup will be taken on by and adult meerkat which will act as a mentor,
teaching food foraging techniques among other things. Meerkat skills
are taught rather than instinctual.
The
meerkats who originate from the Kalahari Desert in South Africa
have lived at Tropical World for two years and have managed to increase
their numbers from two in 2002 to 12 in 2004.
Tropical
World has a strong conservation policy and breeding programme for
endangered species.
Visitor
services manager Carol Fenner says: "We are delighted with
the new meerkat pups. This is great result for the breeding programme
at Tropical World. We are hoping that the golden tamarins and the
sugarglides (monkeys) might also breed this year."
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