Natural World (1983) s21e01 Episode Script
Meerkats: Part of the Team
Allen Jones looks ahead to the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World with a preview of the competition in 50 minutes But first meet the meerkats on BBC 2 as Simon King joins the family in Natural World This is Diego.
He is an adult male meerkat 3 years old and in his prime And this is his mate, Mama she is the head of the family Diego and Mama have had quite a few pups together over the past year or so including Arnie a young male who with the rest of his family has already had some incredible adventures They make a formidable team This family is small by meerkats standards Diego and Mama are a new couple.
They've only been together for a year or so and they're just beginning to stake a territory of their own To do that, they'll need reinforcements the more the pups they have, the bigger the family and the stronger the team Arnie is one of the newest arrivals and already he stands out, a meerkat with real attitude Exploring the world of the meerkat is quite a challenge even Diego is no bigger than a half grown domestic kitten and the babies are the size of mice To find out what they get up to throughout the day and in a way which has never been seen before I have had to earn their complete trust And that's taken time the best part of a year in fact When I started the first hurdle was to pick the right spot This is Tswalu Kalahari Reserve a huge area of sand dunes and mountains on the edge of the Kalahari desert in South Africa First class meerkat territory There's lots of life here besides meerkats some of it are bit easier to spot Some rhino up ahead so I'm gonna back the car off and set the camera With so much big stuff around it's easy to overlook the little guys that live in the sand dunes But there are meerkats here and the best time to spot them is when they first wake up in the morning I've decided to get to know this small family The adults are more nervous than their babies of anything new So it's best if for now I keep my distance and stay in the car Okay, let's see how they take to this I'm not trying to mimic a meerkat's call I'm just trying to make a distinctive sound that won't scare them but it's one that they will gradually come to link with me Got their attention The hand movements are all part of the same process I want the family to be able to recognize me at any distance and realize I'm not a danger They have to learn to trust me Those are what they're gonna have to get used to This is ridiculous, but should work I only have half an hour or so each morning when I can spend time with the family just after they wake up Once they've warmed up, they'll off into the long grass and I lose them It's frustrating.
I have a lot more work to do before I can follow them I've got to keep to a routine calling and waving to them day after day until I feel the whole family is ready for the next step Nights are short in the South African summer, but I have to be out before sunrise I need all the time I can get with the family Fortunately for me, they sleep through the hours of darkness but I want to be at the burrow before they first pop their heads above ground And today especially because today I'm going to take the next step in getting them used to me I'm going to leave the vehicle and sit outside Diego, the adult male is up first looking calm I, on the other hand, I'm really nervous One wrong move now even a simple sneeze would scare him This is where the sounds and movements I've been making start to pay off.
I might not be in the car any more but the family've begun to associate me with this quirky behavior and they've learned that no harm can come of it When they start looking nervous, my heart goes into my throat maybe they are not ready for this.
I may have blown it Though it's not me at all they worried about, it's swifts Swifts aren't dangerous to meerkats but the youngsters don't know that, they've never seen them before The birds have been in Europe for the past 5 months, they've just arrived in South Africa to escape the northern winter The youngsters have never seen anything like it Meerkats are often attacked from the air by eagles and other birds of prey, so it does pay to be wary The pups will learn from Mama and Diego which birds mean trouble and which ones like the swifts are ok In fact, they're going to need a lot of survival lessons before they can fend for themselves And that's a part of their lives I really want to see But for now I just have to watch them disappear off into the grass again It is really tempting to try and follow but if I scare them now, they may never trust me I have a few weeks of work to do to earn that trust I have to move closer each morning until at last I'm just one meter away when they first poke their heads above the ground After two months of seeing me day after day they hardly give me a second glance And this is what it's all about for me It's a chance to see inside the world of a wild animal The family like all meerkats are real sun worshipers After chilling night down the burrow, the first thing they do is warm up The pups try their best to keep alert along with their parents But it's a bit of struggle when you've just woken up One thing that's clear now that I'm sitting so close is that Mama is very heavily pregnant She'll probably be giving birth again in the next week or so And perhaps because of this, that over the past few days, Diego has been going into territorial overdrive smearing his scent all around the burrow system, warning off any invading meerkats These are among the most social of all mammals but usually only within the family Strangers aren't welcome and breeding pairs will often stay together for years if not for life Grooming helps with the practical side of keeping any ticks or other parasites at bay but it's also important for cementing relationships Attempts to clean the kids almost always end up as an excuses for them to have a wrestle Play may be good fun but it also helps the pups and the juveniles establish their place in the hierarchy of the gang The family is close but it's important each member knows where it stands in relation to the other The significance of who can beat up who isn't such a big deal for these youngsters yet but it will be more important as the pups grow up and consider raising their own families Now though most of the exercises, the result of pure high spirits It looks like the whole family trust me enough to begin revealing their world away from the den in a way which has never been seen before It's time for my secret weapon - Meer Cam With this tiny camera, I can reveal the world at meerkat level follow them into the densest vegetation and spy on their every move And the first thing they do when they leave the burrow is have breakfast Meerkats shift an enormous amount of sand each day, several hundred times their own body weight to dig up their prey which is mostly insects and other bugs Their sense of smell is phenomenal They can pinpoint a bug buried deep in the sand with the slightest sniff then they'll bend it backwards to reach it They'll eat just about any small animal they can dig up but they are particularly partial to beetle larvae, lizards, centipedes and if they can get them - scorpions Meerkats seem virtually immune to scorpion stings which could kill a human child When they eat them they're harmlessly digested in the stomach Inevitably whilst foraging, the family come across more formidable opponents Meerkats and snakes do not get on Most snakes may not be venomous, but their bite is nasty And they could do real damage to any tiny youngster inside the burrow By giving the snake a hard time, the family focuses on the danger and encourages it to head for cover That is one burrow the family will not be dashing down in the event of an emergency Moments after the excitement's past, it's back to business for the whole team All that is apart from Mama Whilst the others have been foraging and chasing snakes there's been no sign of her anywhere more a bit of worry really But thankfully she does turn up late in the day looking rather slimmer She must have given birth Back at the burrow it's all quiet, apart from one juvenile male who's been left behind He's baby-sitting Nether Diego nor Mama will help much with looking after the babies during the day It's the younger members of the gang that take turns in keeping guard of the new litter until the rest of the family comes back to the burrow in the evening By my reckoning the new babies should be popping up above ground for the first time in about 3 weeks As far as I'm aware the juveniles have done their guarding job well but I still haven't seen the new babies I don't even know how many there are Today though the babysitter seems more anxious than usual It's a bit of of a chore, isn't it? I mean everybody else goes out and get breakfast lunch super Meanwhile juvenile has to stay and look after the kids I definite hear a baby Hello sweeties How gorgeous is that! They're tiny and no bigger than mice They are just so cute Already the instinct to sit up and to dig is kicking in You can feel their tentative excitement They're just wanting to get out wanting to see the big world Hello, honey.
And yet it's so so different Everything they've known is being down inside that burrow before now This is my chance to really join the team I want this generation of meerkats to be as familiar with me as they are with the sand they're walking on One pup already stands out from the crowd He is a young male He's bolder, more inquisitive than his brothers and sisters Little Arnie What an experience What an experience It's a great feeling to be so close when the others return from a hard day's foraging and to share their space on such a special day This is the first chance the babies have had to feed since Mama headed out early this morning Producing enough milk to satisfy 4 hungry mouths is a real drain on her But thanks to the support of her team she can afford to spend the day away stocking up It's one of the huge advantages of living in such a cooperative mob With other members of the team helping with the kids Mama has been able to produce 3 litters of young in a single season Good going in such a tough place and especially important if she and Diego are going to keep hold of this new territory They 're only 4 weeks old but already Arnie and his brothers and sisters are keen to keep up with the rest of the family Just a few days after popping out of the burrow But they want to explore a wider world They're far too young to dig up their own bugs And once again the cooperation of the team helps to start them off on the right foot Each baby stays glued to an older family member begging constantly The response is immediate hard won food is handed over to the new arrivals without a quibble Mama, Diego and the juveniles provide a constant service often putting the demands of the babies before their own Not always though The pups can get pretty grumpy if a brother or sister tries to muscle in on their free deal and one of the male pups is harder than most Arnie, of course These disputes can get quite nasty sometimes Even at this tender age status in the group is beginning to take shape It's high summer in the desert And by 9:30 in the morning the temperature in the sun is already in the mid 30s The shade of course is considerably cooler That is if you can find somewhere to settle It may take a bit of getting used to, but being covered in sand does have its advantages when it comes to cooling down Meerkats have a low metabolic rate which means they produce surprisingly little heat internally for an animal their size and in these temperatures As the morning wears on, even the shade of the tree gets unbearably hot Mama decides it's time for another move I have no idea where they're going I just have to follow That's not nice thought with the temperature touching 40 degrees now It's a wise decision by Mama the old aardvark hole is much cooler than any tree shade could offer Oh, don't tell me, guys, you're not gonna have a siesta here The surface of the sand out here now is over 70 degrees zero shade The nearest large tree is too far away for me to keep a watch on the burrow I need to find some shade We'll have to make some then, won't we? a lot of stinkers?.
My parasol is better than nothing but it can't compare with the burrow which can be up to 30 degrees cooler than the world outside I have to confess to feeling pretty jealous I'm reduced to be a vegetable Six hours later with the afternoon starting to cool down it's back into action for the meerkats Despite the heat meerkats hardly ever drink They get all the water they need from juicy grubs and bugs And the new babies just can't get enough of those The moment they head out they're begging again It's these constant calls that stimulate to older members of the gang to bring food to the babies And with the day cut short by the heat, it's all the others can do to find time to feed themselves Supplies of bugs come thick and fast to the youngsters but they are already trying to feed themselves Stinging ants are a challenging start though Strangely even though ants might give them a bit of jab, a scorpion is dealt with in quick time If I was stung by that fella I'll be feeling very sick, very quickly But little Arnie munches it down without even trying to remove the sting This routine of looking after the babies continues for the next month and through the rains which sweep over the desert Rain's scarce here Its arrival is good news for the meerkats They don't like getting wet but the whole family benefits from the glut of bugs which emerges after a good downpour or two After the storms move off to the north other desert dwellers creep out of the woodwork Puff adders are common here and highly venomous These large lazy snakes are ambush hunters They rely on their superb camouflage to get within striking distance of their prey and that could easily include a meerkat Rather than give trouble a wide berth, the family led on by now well-grown Arnie mob the snake It's like playing with fire Lightning reactions keep the meerkats out of harm's way They can usually deal with trouble they encounter at ground level But as you watch the family feed it's clear they face a dilemma With their noses buried in the sand most of the time, they can't look out for trouble And being small they're particularly vulnerable to attack from the air by eagles and hawks So they address the problem with a very effective security service There's almost always one member of the clan on watch, keeping an keen eye out for danger All of the older members of the clan take a turn on sentry duty Some more than others, largely based on how well they're fed And the guards are the first to dash for cover when trouble appears So it's not an entirely selfless act The guards continually chirp letting the rest of the group know that they got the job in hand They're very good at getting up But when it comes to climbing back down to get down out of the tree hardly elegant, were they? There's a truly mischievous edge to the family's character Their very survival depends on their investigating every opportunity and noticing every threat But I can't help feeling that their reaction to the local ground squirrels is plain loutish Meerkats and ground squirrel share the same homes In fact, many meerkat burrow systems started out at the hard work of the local squirrel community It's hardly the way to treat your neighbors But the younger members of the team just can't resist the temptation to terrorize All of the babies are now feeding themselves and there's an increasing need for Mama and Diego to claim new territory to meet the demands of their growing clan Moving to new ground brings with it the risk of the unknown As the family ventures further and further from their familiar stamping ground It becomes noticeably more tense When they come across a serious adversary, they're pumped up and ready to rumble Rock monitors are well over a meter long, heavy and almost fearless Their bites powerful and their muscular tail can deliver a heavy blow irresistible to the gang Monitors are quite capable of devouring a litter of young meerkats deep in a burrow But this one just wants to avoid being hassled Despite the risks the gang can't resist one last look It seems complete crazy, they could so easily just walk away But it is this curiosity and the spirit that I love about meerkats Away from their more usual homes, they do face a real risk They haven't spent any time checking out escape routes in this area So when a real threat turns up in the shape of goshawk the dash for cover is going to be in uncharted territory It was Arnie who was first into the hole and he stumbled into real trouble in the darkness A small scratch on his left shoulder suggests a snake bite He almost certainly ran straight into a puff adder just inside the burrow entrance A bite from this snake could kill a man Agonizing to watch as he struggles to keep up with the rest of the family but there really is nothing that can be done other than stay nearby and watch over him He eventually manages to make it back to the burrow alone and only just in time He falls unconscious By the time the rest of the family returns in the evening, he's barely breathing He holds on to life through the night and the whole of the next day Then on the third morning after the bite, there is a miraculous change Somehow he's pulled through I find it absolutely incredible that animal this size can withstand a snake bite because to death for the best part of 2 days and now you can hardly tell him apart from the rest of the family They're so tough, rock hard Quite how he survived I'll never know Meerkats have some immunity to snake bite, but they can and have been killed by snakes But survived he has and in inimitable fashion Within a few days he's back to his normal boisterous self I've spent so much time with the family I'm pretty much seen as a part of the landscape now Arnie especially has been getting really close since his accident I don't want to pretend this is a meerkat displaying any form of affection my arms simply form a cave that Arnie can use to launch surprise attacks on his brothers and sisters He gives me the chance to check that his wound is healing up nicely His trust in me encourages the others to investigate It is such a treat The mornings are colder now, well below freezing at dawn and to Arnie I represent a warm rock to snuggle up against It may not be affection, but it is complete trust from a truly wild animal Now let me see, Arnie I think Hello, friend And I couldn't be more delighted The family has gone from 5 individuals when I first met them to 10 strong Arnie is 100% well and the future looks good for Diego, Mama and the rest of the gang They look set to hold their own as a team against all challenges
He is an adult male meerkat 3 years old and in his prime And this is his mate, Mama she is the head of the family Diego and Mama have had quite a few pups together over the past year or so including Arnie a young male who with the rest of his family has already had some incredible adventures They make a formidable team This family is small by meerkats standards Diego and Mama are a new couple.
They've only been together for a year or so and they're just beginning to stake a territory of their own To do that, they'll need reinforcements the more the pups they have, the bigger the family and the stronger the team Arnie is one of the newest arrivals and already he stands out, a meerkat with real attitude Exploring the world of the meerkat is quite a challenge even Diego is no bigger than a half grown domestic kitten and the babies are the size of mice To find out what they get up to throughout the day and in a way which has never been seen before I have had to earn their complete trust And that's taken time the best part of a year in fact When I started the first hurdle was to pick the right spot This is Tswalu Kalahari Reserve a huge area of sand dunes and mountains on the edge of the Kalahari desert in South Africa First class meerkat territory There's lots of life here besides meerkats some of it are bit easier to spot Some rhino up ahead so I'm gonna back the car off and set the camera With so much big stuff around it's easy to overlook the little guys that live in the sand dunes But there are meerkats here and the best time to spot them is when they first wake up in the morning I've decided to get to know this small family The adults are more nervous than their babies of anything new So it's best if for now I keep my distance and stay in the car Okay, let's see how they take to this I'm not trying to mimic a meerkat's call I'm just trying to make a distinctive sound that won't scare them but it's one that they will gradually come to link with me Got their attention The hand movements are all part of the same process I want the family to be able to recognize me at any distance and realize I'm not a danger They have to learn to trust me Those are what they're gonna have to get used to This is ridiculous, but should work I only have half an hour or so each morning when I can spend time with the family just after they wake up Once they've warmed up, they'll off into the long grass and I lose them It's frustrating.
I have a lot more work to do before I can follow them I've got to keep to a routine calling and waving to them day after day until I feel the whole family is ready for the next step Nights are short in the South African summer, but I have to be out before sunrise I need all the time I can get with the family Fortunately for me, they sleep through the hours of darkness but I want to be at the burrow before they first pop their heads above ground And today especially because today I'm going to take the next step in getting them used to me I'm going to leave the vehicle and sit outside Diego, the adult male is up first looking calm I, on the other hand, I'm really nervous One wrong move now even a simple sneeze would scare him This is where the sounds and movements I've been making start to pay off.
I might not be in the car any more but the family've begun to associate me with this quirky behavior and they've learned that no harm can come of it When they start looking nervous, my heart goes into my throat maybe they are not ready for this.
I may have blown it Though it's not me at all they worried about, it's swifts Swifts aren't dangerous to meerkats but the youngsters don't know that, they've never seen them before The birds have been in Europe for the past 5 months, they've just arrived in South Africa to escape the northern winter The youngsters have never seen anything like it Meerkats are often attacked from the air by eagles and other birds of prey, so it does pay to be wary The pups will learn from Mama and Diego which birds mean trouble and which ones like the swifts are ok In fact, they're going to need a lot of survival lessons before they can fend for themselves And that's a part of their lives I really want to see But for now I just have to watch them disappear off into the grass again It is really tempting to try and follow but if I scare them now, they may never trust me I have a few weeks of work to do to earn that trust I have to move closer each morning until at last I'm just one meter away when they first poke their heads above the ground After two months of seeing me day after day they hardly give me a second glance And this is what it's all about for me It's a chance to see inside the world of a wild animal The family like all meerkats are real sun worshipers After chilling night down the burrow, the first thing they do is warm up The pups try their best to keep alert along with their parents But it's a bit of struggle when you've just woken up One thing that's clear now that I'm sitting so close is that Mama is very heavily pregnant She'll probably be giving birth again in the next week or so And perhaps because of this, that over the past few days, Diego has been going into territorial overdrive smearing his scent all around the burrow system, warning off any invading meerkats These are among the most social of all mammals but usually only within the family Strangers aren't welcome and breeding pairs will often stay together for years if not for life Grooming helps with the practical side of keeping any ticks or other parasites at bay but it's also important for cementing relationships Attempts to clean the kids almost always end up as an excuses for them to have a wrestle Play may be good fun but it also helps the pups and the juveniles establish their place in the hierarchy of the gang The family is close but it's important each member knows where it stands in relation to the other The significance of who can beat up who isn't such a big deal for these youngsters yet but it will be more important as the pups grow up and consider raising their own families Now though most of the exercises, the result of pure high spirits It looks like the whole family trust me enough to begin revealing their world away from the den in a way which has never been seen before It's time for my secret weapon - Meer Cam With this tiny camera, I can reveal the world at meerkat level follow them into the densest vegetation and spy on their every move And the first thing they do when they leave the burrow is have breakfast Meerkats shift an enormous amount of sand each day, several hundred times their own body weight to dig up their prey which is mostly insects and other bugs Their sense of smell is phenomenal They can pinpoint a bug buried deep in the sand with the slightest sniff then they'll bend it backwards to reach it They'll eat just about any small animal they can dig up but they are particularly partial to beetle larvae, lizards, centipedes and if they can get them - scorpions Meerkats seem virtually immune to scorpion stings which could kill a human child When they eat them they're harmlessly digested in the stomach Inevitably whilst foraging, the family come across more formidable opponents Meerkats and snakes do not get on Most snakes may not be venomous, but their bite is nasty And they could do real damage to any tiny youngster inside the burrow By giving the snake a hard time, the family focuses on the danger and encourages it to head for cover That is one burrow the family will not be dashing down in the event of an emergency Moments after the excitement's past, it's back to business for the whole team All that is apart from Mama Whilst the others have been foraging and chasing snakes there's been no sign of her anywhere more a bit of worry really But thankfully she does turn up late in the day looking rather slimmer She must have given birth Back at the burrow it's all quiet, apart from one juvenile male who's been left behind He's baby-sitting Nether Diego nor Mama will help much with looking after the babies during the day It's the younger members of the gang that take turns in keeping guard of the new litter until the rest of the family comes back to the burrow in the evening By my reckoning the new babies should be popping up above ground for the first time in about 3 weeks As far as I'm aware the juveniles have done their guarding job well but I still haven't seen the new babies I don't even know how many there are Today though the babysitter seems more anxious than usual It's a bit of of a chore, isn't it? I mean everybody else goes out and get breakfast lunch super Meanwhile juvenile has to stay and look after the kids I definite hear a baby Hello sweeties How gorgeous is that! They're tiny and no bigger than mice They are just so cute Already the instinct to sit up and to dig is kicking in You can feel their tentative excitement They're just wanting to get out wanting to see the big world Hello, honey.
And yet it's so so different Everything they've known is being down inside that burrow before now This is my chance to really join the team I want this generation of meerkats to be as familiar with me as they are with the sand they're walking on One pup already stands out from the crowd He is a young male He's bolder, more inquisitive than his brothers and sisters Little Arnie What an experience What an experience It's a great feeling to be so close when the others return from a hard day's foraging and to share their space on such a special day This is the first chance the babies have had to feed since Mama headed out early this morning Producing enough milk to satisfy 4 hungry mouths is a real drain on her But thanks to the support of her team she can afford to spend the day away stocking up It's one of the huge advantages of living in such a cooperative mob With other members of the team helping with the kids Mama has been able to produce 3 litters of young in a single season Good going in such a tough place and especially important if she and Diego are going to keep hold of this new territory They 're only 4 weeks old but already Arnie and his brothers and sisters are keen to keep up with the rest of the family Just a few days after popping out of the burrow But they want to explore a wider world They're far too young to dig up their own bugs And once again the cooperation of the team helps to start them off on the right foot Each baby stays glued to an older family member begging constantly The response is immediate hard won food is handed over to the new arrivals without a quibble Mama, Diego and the juveniles provide a constant service often putting the demands of the babies before their own Not always though The pups can get pretty grumpy if a brother or sister tries to muscle in on their free deal and one of the male pups is harder than most Arnie, of course These disputes can get quite nasty sometimes Even at this tender age status in the group is beginning to take shape It's high summer in the desert And by 9:30 in the morning the temperature in the sun is already in the mid 30s The shade of course is considerably cooler That is if you can find somewhere to settle It may take a bit of getting used to, but being covered in sand does have its advantages when it comes to cooling down Meerkats have a low metabolic rate which means they produce surprisingly little heat internally for an animal their size and in these temperatures As the morning wears on, even the shade of the tree gets unbearably hot Mama decides it's time for another move I have no idea where they're going I just have to follow That's not nice thought with the temperature touching 40 degrees now It's a wise decision by Mama the old aardvark hole is much cooler than any tree shade could offer Oh, don't tell me, guys, you're not gonna have a siesta here The surface of the sand out here now is over 70 degrees zero shade The nearest large tree is too far away for me to keep a watch on the burrow I need to find some shade We'll have to make some then, won't we? a lot of stinkers?.
My parasol is better than nothing but it can't compare with the burrow which can be up to 30 degrees cooler than the world outside I have to confess to feeling pretty jealous I'm reduced to be a vegetable Six hours later with the afternoon starting to cool down it's back into action for the meerkats Despite the heat meerkats hardly ever drink They get all the water they need from juicy grubs and bugs And the new babies just can't get enough of those The moment they head out they're begging again It's these constant calls that stimulate to older members of the gang to bring food to the babies And with the day cut short by the heat, it's all the others can do to find time to feed themselves Supplies of bugs come thick and fast to the youngsters but they are already trying to feed themselves Stinging ants are a challenging start though Strangely even though ants might give them a bit of jab, a scorpion is dealt with in quick time If I was stung by that fella I'll be feeling very sick, very quickly But little Arnie munches it down without even trying to remove the sting This routine of looking after the babies continues for the next month and through the rains which sweep over the desert Rain's scarce here Its arrival is good news for the meerkats They don't like getting wet but the whole family benefits from the glut of bugs which emerges after a good downpour or two After the storms move off to the north other desert dwellers creep out of the woodwork Puff adders are common here and highly venomous These large lazy snakes are ambush hunters They rely on their superb camouflage to get within striking distance of their prey and that could easily include a meerkat Rather than give trouble a wide berth, the family led on by now well-grown Arnie mob the snake It's like playing with fire Lightning reactions keep the meerkats out of harm's way They can usually deal with trouble they encounter at ground level But as you watch the family feed it's clear they face a dilemma With their noses buried in the sand most of the time, they can't look out for trouble And being small they're particularly vulnerable to attack from the air by eagles and hawks So they address the problem with a very effective security service There's almost always one member of the clan on watch, keeping an keen eye out for danger All of the older members of the clan take a turn on sentry duty Some more than others, largely based on how well they're fed And the guards are the first to dash for cover when trouble appears So it's not an entirely selfless act The guards continually chirp letting the rest of the group know that they got the job in hand They're very good at getting up But when it comes to climbing back down to get down out of the tree hardly elegant, were they? There's a truly mischievous edge to the family's character Their very survival depends on their investigating every opportunity and noticing every threat But I can't help feeling that their reaction to the local ground squirrels is plain loutish Meerkats and ground squirrel share the same homes In fact, many meerkat burrow systems started out at the hard work of the local squirrel community It's hardly the way to treat your neighbors But the younger members of the team just can't resist the temptation to terrorize All of the babies are now feeding themselves and there's an increasing need for Mama and Diego to claim new territory to meet the demands of their growing clan Moving to new ground brings with it the risk of the unknown As the family ventures further and further from their familiar stamping ground It becomes noticeably more tense When they come across a serious adversary, they're pumped up and ready to rumble Rock monitors are well over a meter long, heavy and almost fearless Their bites powerful and their muscular tail can deliver a heavy blow irresistible to the gang Monitors are quite capable of devouring a litter of young meerkats deep in a burrow But this one just wants to avoid being hassled Despite the risks the gang can't resist one last look It seems complete crazy, they could so easily just walk away But it is this curiosity and the spirit that I love about meerkats Away from their more usual homes, they do face a real risk They haven't spent any time checking out escape routes in this area So when a real threat turns up in the shape of goshawk the dash for cover is going to be in uncharted territory It was Arnie who was first into the hole and he stumbled into real trouble in the darkness A small scratch on his left shoulder suggests a snake bite He almost certainly ran straight into a puff adder just inside the burrow entrance A bite from this snake could kill a man Agonizing to watch as he struggles to keep up with the rest of the family but there really is nothing that can be done other than stay nearby and watch over him He eventually manages to make it back to the burrow alone and only just in time He falls unconscious By the time the rest of the family returns in the evening, he's barely breathing He holds on to life through the night and the whole of the next day Then on the third morning after the bite, there is a miraculous change Somehow he's pulled through I find it absolutely incredible that animal this size can withstand a snake bite because to death for the best part of 2 days and now you can hardly tell him apart from the rest of the family They're so tough, rock hard Quite how he survived I'll never know Meerkats have some immunity to snake bite, but they can and have been killed by snakes But survived he has and in inimitable fashion Within a few days he's back to his normal boisterous self I've spent so much time with the family I'm pretty much seen as a part of the landscape now Arnie especially has been getting really close since his accident I don't want to pretend this is a meerkat displaying any form of affection my arms simply form a cave that Arnie can use to launch surprise attacks on his brothers and sisters He gives me the chance to check that his wound is healing up nicely His trust in me encourages the others to investigate It is such a treat The mornings are colder now, well below freezing at dawn and to Arnie I represent a warm rock to snuggle up against It may not be affection, but it is complete trust from a truly wild animal Now let me see, Arnie I think Hello, friend And I couldn't be more delighted The family has gone from 5 individuals when I first met them to 10 strong Arnie is 100% well and the future looks good for Diego, Mama and the rest of the gang They look set to hold their own as a team against all challenges