There’s a new addition to the Riverview Park and Zoo in Peterborough.
“Welcome to our new baby slender-tailed meerkat,” the zoo announced on social media on Monday (July 28), sharing a photo and video.
“The baby is about a month old now and is getting braver every day, exploring the habitat and learning new things. We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet but we are excited to have this little one join the meerkat mob!”
The slender-tailed meerkat, also known simply as the meerkat, is a small highly social mammal native to the arid regions of southern Africa. They have a slender body, pointed snout, dark patches around the eyes to help reduce glare from the sun, and a long tapering tail used for balance.
To avoid predators and the hot sun, meerkats make their homes in an extensive network of burrows — with its long and curved claws, a meerkat can dig through a quantity of sand equal to its own weight in just seconds.
These intelligent animals are known for their upright stance, alert behavior, and intricate vocal communication, making them one of the most recognizable and studied members of the mongoose family.
Meerkats live in tight-knit groups called mobs or clans, often made up of several different families. They cooperate in activities like foraging, babysitting, and sentry duty.
Meerkats can reproduce any time of the year, but most births occur in the warmer seasons, with an average litter of around three pups. The pups are born within the meerkat’s underground burrow and require constant parental care for a period of time. Pups are allowed to leave the burrow at around three weeks, but with babysitters nearby.
As for the baby meerkat at the Riverview Park and Zoo, the zoo is asking visitors to “be especially respectful when viewing the meerkats in their habitat as not to scare the baby and new family.”
