Long time ago I've sent you a Meerkat Manor DVD about a family of meerkats that was tracked and filmed. If you have watched it you know about meerkats a lot by now.
Today I want to share with you some new pictures of meerkats we took last month at San Diego ZOO and San Diego Safari Park. Aren't they cute? :-)

You would know that they are very social animals and they live in groups and that every member of the group has a different role. A few will typically serve as lookouts, watching the skies for birds of prey, such as hawks and eagles, that can snatch them from the ground. A sharp, shrill call is the signal for all to take cover. In captivity there aren’t obviously any predators to endanger meerkats, so their behaviour has changed and certainly they will not watch the skies as much as in the wild. Still, when you go to Safari Park or ZOO with an open air meerkat enclosure, you will see one or two of them standing on their rear legs and gazing alertly into the skies.

While a few individuals guard the group, the rest busy themselves foraging for the foods. Meerkats will eat insects, lizards, birds, and fruit. Meerkat groups utilize several different burrows and move from one to another. Each burrow is an extensive tunnel-and-room system that remains cool even under the sun. Females give birth to two to four young each year in one of the group’s burrows. Fathers and siblings help to raise meerkat young, teaching them to play and forage and alerting them to the ever present danger from above.

So, what was my meerkat encounter experience? Well, it was an one hour meeting with a group of meerkats and their keeper. When we arrived, we were divided into groups of four people. Each group was assigned a different keeper and each keeper took their group to a different meerkat enclosure. I went to meet three meerkats living in an indoor enclosure. We went inside their ‘house’. The keeper introduced each meerkat to us, told us a little about each of them and we just kept chatting, asking questions and enjoying their furry company. They were used to people, so they were just walking around, smelling us and carrying on with their normal activities. The keeper gave us some fruits to feed the meerkats and explained that in the wild they mainly eat insects, but in captivity they are being fed with fruits and just a small portion of worms. Apparently worms provide a lot of nutritions and as meerkats in captivity don’t need to hunt and they are not as active as in the wild, they don’t need that much energy. Eating just worms would cause them to gain weight, which is never good for any creature’s health. So, we were giving them fruits (bananas, oranges, grapes, apples) and they were just taking them with their little claws and nibbling a bit. They are clever creatures however, so they knew that if they don’t eat their fruits, they will get some worms! After a small nibble they rejected the rest of the fruits and the keeper told us that this is about the time to give them some worms. He asked us to put couple of worms on the palm of our hand and lower the hand quickly to the ground, so meerkats can reach the food. Well, I have to tell you dear Atria, they love their worms! Sometimes I couldn’t lower my hand fast enough and the meerkats were already jumping on me to get the worms. They are very lively and active creatures, but the speed they were picking up the worms from our hands was incredible! When the worms ration finished meerkats started eating their fruits again - very clever.

The whole feeding experience took half an hour and after that, we were taken to a different building with just a two very friendly meerkats. We sat down on the chairs and the keepers were handing the meerkats to us. The two meerkats were brothers and they were accustomed to being handled, stroked and cuddled by people. They were actually raised by a private breeder and then sold to the Hoo Farm. They were very lively and so cute. You can see in the pictures that they were walking all over me :-) I have some videos as well and I will post them for you later.  One interesting thing I learned was that a meerkat probably won’t survive on its own. They are very social animals and they have to live in groups of at least two meerkats. A single meerkat would feel very lonely and would most likely become sick from sadness and could suffer from heart attack - all due to its loneliness. That was an interesting new fact I learned.

The whole experience was wonderful, meerkats were as cute as ever and the keepers were very knowledgeable, open, friendly and responsive. I very much enjoyed my birthday present.

Here you can learn a bit more about the meerkat encounter experience.

Dear Atria,
I have written to you before about meerkats and also of a very clever insurance comparison website advertising campaign based on a supposed spelling mistake between words ‘market’ and ‘meerkat’, the campaign that introduced meerkat Alexandr Orlov and his furry friends. Now, when you buy any type of insurance through comparethemarket.com you will be able to choose a meerkat toy. If you like them you can ask your Mum to first check the prices of her house insurance or any other insurance she may require on this website and if the price is good and she is happy to proceed she can order a meerkat for you.
Below is Anna’s collection of meerkat toys and if you like any of them write to me - Anna said she will be happy to give them to you if you like them. They are Yakov, Sergei and Alexandr.

Here it is how Alexandr Orlov himself introduces himself and his friends.

If you want to learn more about them you can visit Merkovo Village website here.

Dear Atria,

Today we went to the West Midlands Safari Park and we saw meerkats again.
The day was rainy and a bit chilly. As you can see from the photo the meerkats had gathered together under the light bulb. They were enjoying the heat of the bulb as well as trying to keep each others warm.

As you remember from my previous posts about meerkats, they are very social creatures, they live in mobs and they look after members of their group.
This is a very nice and carrying behaviour and I like these little creatures very much and I could spand hours watching them.
I hope you have already learned a lot about them from the DVD I sent you. Do you like meerkats my dear Atria?

Have you ever seen a meerkat dear Atria? Last summer I visited two different safari parks and I had an opportunity to see there the whole meerkats families. They are very cute little animals. They are size of a squirrel, but they are not squirrels - they are mongooses, they live on the desert and they are famous for their upright posture. They often stand on their rear legs and gaze alertly over the desert. 
The nice thing I've learned about meerkats is that they live in a very well structured communities and they work together in numbers. A few will typically serve as lookouts, watching the skies for birds of prey, such as hawks and eagles, that can snatch them from the ground. A sharp, shrill call is the signal for all to take cover. While a few individuals guard the group, the rest busy themselves foraging for the foods. The other meerkats will take care of pops and teach them survival skills. 
I took some pictures of meerkats living in safari parks, so you can see how cute this little creatures are.

One of the most famous meerkats in the advertising business is meerkat Alexander Orlov from comparethemeerkat.com - I copied a picture of him for you - nice and fluffy creature he is. He is a Russian aristocrat meerkat, whose family went trough very difficult times and a lot of struggles to get to the point they are now - running a successful meerkat comparison business. Have you ever seen adverts with meerkat Alexander? He obviously is not real, he has been created for advertising purposes, but for millions of viewers he seems to be real. He has his own meerkat comparison website, he even has written a book about history of his meerkat family and his book has sold better than Tony Blair's autobiography. Anna thinks that it is the greatest advertising campaign ever and she loves the quirky idea. What do you think? Do you like adverts with meerkat Alexander? I didn't care about these things before, but now I like meerkats, because they remind me of my best friend, who left me, but hasn't left my heart.