We are going on with the story about the four meerkats who were born at Moscow Zoo a month ago.
First, when the babies became orphans, our primary task was to save their lives. However, we realized that people could not become a new family for small meerkats. It is well known that hand-reared animals, without close communication with the representatives of the same species, will face a lot of problems in their future life, as it will be hard for them to adapt to new conditions, to communicate with their relatives or with keepers. Often they can be too aggressive, can not establish pairs and do not show parental behavior patterns.
Our small meerkat babies were lucky.
The separation enclosure with the growing babies was loated next to another enclosure where an adult meerkat female was kept. She had to be moved to this enclosure before the babies were born, as their mother was too aggressive towards this female. It should be mentioned here, that lonely life for such animals as meerkats can be a very serious strain. Therefore, it is clear that when the small babies appeared very close to the separated female, it was a great happening to her. The female could smell them, hear the noise they produced and see the small meerkats being fed. During the time of feeding the female was always sitting close to the wire net and watching the process. When we noticed that she was so much interested, we let her sniff the babies.
When the babies grew up a little, they were moved to another, more spacious enclosure, and we started considering the possibility to keep the female together with the babies, in one group. Of course, it was risky. In the wild, meeting strangers of the same species can very often end up with severe fighting. But if the attempt was lucky, both the female and the babies could create a new family, where the babies could be taught all the necessary things which people cannot teach them.
The adult female and the young ones were kept in such a way that they could communicate through the wire net separating their enclosures. All the animals were quiet, and we did not notice any signs of aggression from the female. After a week of such co-existence, when the young meerkats became more than a month old, we finally decided to open the door separating the neighbors. During the first moments of the introduction, the keepers were near, ready to interfere if necessary. Then they stepped away from the enclosure, not to draw too much attention, and kept watching the animals using video system.
The female, having left her enclosure, started to examine the new territory. At first, the young meerkats started to sniff their guest with great interest, but she paid no attention to them. Then the grown-up babies decided to frighten the female – they pulled up their tails and, all in one line, with loud shrieks, tried to attack the intruder. When it did not impress the female at all, they got really frightened themselves. The babies stuck in the corner – they did not understand what else could be done.
The female continued to examine the enclosure. She showed no signs of aggression or interest to the young meerkats, treating them just as details of the interior. That was unexpected. When 45 minutes after the introduction passed, we came up to the enclosure and fed the babies. Contact with the familiar keeper and tasty food had soothing effect, and being very tired after such an exciting experience, the young meerkats fell asleep on the roof of their house. Suddenly, the female approached the sleeping meerkats, examined them very attentively, and started licking and cleaning them thoroughly. The small meerkats were moving their legs the way all sleeping children do. Then the female was sitting near the babies, watching everything happening around – she was protecting their sleep. And when a keeper entered the room, she tried to move the babies into her own enclosure.
It became quite clear that the single female had accepted the alien babies, and it is impossible to find a better nurse for our young animals, as she will raise them to be real meerkats.
Photo: the first meeting
Video clip: the babies try to frighten the female
