Four years ago on a spring afternoon in D.C. I met some meerkats for the first time and laughed my ass off! The hilarious hijinks that were going on in their burrow kept me glued to the zoo exhibit for a half an hour. I didn't know anything about meerkats, in fact I didn't even know that Timon from The Lion King was a meerkat, so I decided to learn more. We started watching Meerkat Manor and I remember my friend Tanya warning me,"be careful Gina, some freaky shit goes down in the burrow" but I just blew her off and continued watching with Bella and Mia by my side. Wouldn't you know--the very next episode included the dominant female retaliating against another female who gave birth to meerkat pups, by eating said pups and sending a warning to all the other females in their mob to close their furry little legs. Riveting? Yes. Suitable for 2 little girls under the age of 4? Not at all.
But for real you guys--meerkats are freakin' awesome. Their mob consists of about 20-30 members with a dominant male and a very dominant female who's really the one in charge. They have a cooperative breeding system, which basically means there's only one female who gives birth and everyone else helps in feeding, playing and even babysitting the pups. IT'S GENIUS!!!! I mean, yeah, the social heirarchy of a meerkat mob is highly unfair to most members but it's sure does make for great tv.
Thankfully, I shielded Chance from the theory of kin selection and focused more on the light hearted aspects of the meerkat burrow like scorpions for breakfast and digging for days.
Here's our highlights:
No comments:
Post a Comment