Category: General

Van Helsing continues to decline due to tuberculosis within the group, but are holding at 11 individuals including the five wild males that immigrated into the group a few months prior.

Progress continues to be made with the four habituation groups, albeit some faster than others. These groups are Elrond’s Council, Gold Diggers, (Little) Creatures and Tswana.

Hakuna Matata Flint Lockwood (VHMF001) is pregnant with her first litter as dominant female.

Flint Lockwood pregnant with first litter as a dominant. Photo by meerkat volunteer Lea Sueur

Click here for the June 2019 Life History chart.

Find the June 2019 Meerkatter here.

Sigma with then-pup Thursday in 2018. Photo by KMP visitor Laura Salamone-Maiden

May was all about female dominance. In Zulus, Spruddle (VZUF028) came out on top but not after losing her new litter to infanticide by younger sister Lentil (VZU032).  Female dominance battles also took place in Van Helsing with no real winner and all of the contenders showing signs of TB.  At Lazuli, Sigma (VLF230) quickly took over dominance with the disappearance of Filthy McNasty (VLF223) near the end of the month..

Click here for the May 2019 Life History chart.

Find the May 2019 Meerkatter here.

Filthy McNasty eating a young monitor lizard. Photo by KMP visitor Laura Salamone-Maiden

Make-e-Plan pup suckling on Crunchy Nut. Photo by Meerkat Volunteer Lucie Reinwalt

Pups! Pups! Pups!  Food was plentiful in April, ideal for all of the newly foraging pups from Ubuntu, Little Creatures, Gold Diggers, Make-e-Plan and Lazuli.  There were even more pups still in the burrows of Elrond’s Council, Jaxx and Namaqua.  Whiskers dominant female, Swift (VWF176), and Zulu’s triple threat, Spruddle (VZUF028), Lil’G (VZUF029 and Lentil (ZVUF032) are all pregnant as well.

Run Amuk has gone extinct with the death of dominant male, Riptide (VHMM002), leaving young Bastet (VRUM006) all on his own.

Find the April 2019 Life History details here.

Run Amuk Riptide marking the weights box. Photo by Laura Salamone-Maiden

Find the April 2019 Meerkatter here.

Zulus dominant female Poma pregnant with her final litter. Photo by KMP visitor Laura Salamone-Maiden

Throughout March Whiskers boys, Bonnie (VWM209), Clyde (VWM208) and Cleo (VWM205) continued to fight for dominance in Namaqua.  Bonnie received the brunt of it by sporting a nasty lacerated and swollen face.  Lewie (VLM208) had enough and viciously fought with Cleo and Clyde, regaining his dominance.

Zulus dominant female Poma (VZUF007) gave birth mid March but due to a possible threat in the burrow, the pups were brought out just days later and moved.  Poma emerged from the burrow with lacerations and swelling, most likely due to snake bites.  Sadly, she succumbed to her injuries over night.  No other females in the group were lactating so Poma’s final litter was lost and dominance up for grabs.

Find the March 2019 Life History File here.

Find the March 2019 Meerkatter here.