Welfare of meerkats

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by Prof. Tim Clutton-Brock

Since Flower’s death in series III, a number of people have contacted us with concerns about the welfare of meerkats.  While we do not interfere to prevent natural mortality, we do our best to ensure that our research on the meerkats never affects them adversely and our research is overseen both by Northern Cape Nature Conservation and by the University of Pretoria Ethical Committee. 

Animals are occasionally caught and anaesthetised using Fluothane to allow blood samples to be collected: our catching procedures have been developed in collaboration with experienced vets and use equipment (including a portable oxygen supply and a flow regulator) usually only available under hospital conditions.  We occasionally euthanase animals in the late stages of TB (bovine) to reduce the spread of the disease but do not kill animals for experimental purposes. 

Since the ranges of groups are large, we fit radio-collars on one or two animals per group to allow us to locate them.  We have investigated whether carrying a radio-collar has any adverse effects on the animals (see Golabek et al. 2008 - click here for abstract) and found that it does not.  We regularly check that collars are not too tight and remove them if there is any problem: for example, when animals are bitten by snakes or suffer other injuries, we check that collars are not restricting and remove them if so. 

Animals are persuaded with crumbs of egg or with small amounts of water to climb onto electronic balances, so that they can be weighed and we can measure their growth.  We work closely with the team making Meerkat Manor, who are also extremely careful of the animals’ welfare.