The big meerkat questions

gentle lemur

gentle lemur

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I visited Bristol this week and as I was walking through the zoo to the gorillas, I stopped at the meerkats. I was thinking critically about their enclosure, as ZooChat members do. I dislike the enclosure - it is small and sited beneath a large evergreen tree and so the environment is quite dark. But then I looked at the meerkats: they looked very well - in particular they were active and they were not overweight (as most zoo meerkats seem to be). Looking again at the enclosure, I could see that the tree provided shelter, but that the enclosure was open to the sun from the south and it has lots of glass, which shelters the meerkats from any wind and gives some 'greenhouse effect' for these notoriously warmth-loving creatures. The glass also lets the meerkats see the people, which they seem to like, so it may be almost as important as letting people see the meerkats. However I still wish it was significantly larger.

So my questions are, which zoo has the best meerkat enclosure and which zoo has the fittest meerkats?

It strikes me that this is quite a good test of a zoo. Virtually every zoo in the UK has meerkats and there is no reason why a large zoo should keep them better (or worse) than a small one. I'm going to make a special point of looking at the meerkats when I visit zoos this summer to try to work out my answers to these questions. I will be interested in other members' opinions.

Alan
 
Attached is pictures of Exmoor Zoo's meerkat enclosure.
Did some work experience there last year for my college course.
There are abut five meerkats and all are in good health. Enclosure is made up of artificial rocks and a sand substrate. Indoor area has viewing windows and has a straw substrate and hide boxes as well as heat lamps.
 
I believe that Combe Martin claimed to have the largest meercat enclosure in the UK , not certain if this is still the case .
 
newquay zoo used to have their meerkats in a really big exhibit with zebra and lechwe. the large amount of land offered to them (there was also a rocky mountain bit-thing) was, i think, relly good for the meerkats...although hard to spot. seagulls also offered what can be considered has dangerous enrichment acting like birds of prey!
 
Chester zoo in the late 70's early 80's. Had a "HUGE" off exhibit collection in the paddok next door to the zoo;). I have been told many times.
 
I agree with you Alan the bristol enclosure is of pretty low standard. Marwell and London have average enclosures, to me the best one would have to be Exmoor and Longleat they have good indoor facilities and a nice stucture outside and seemed pretty fit.

I have noticed at alot of zoos meerkats always seem to be some of the fattest residents especially at paultons park.
 
Chester's Tsavo enclosure is particularly good I feel (especially when compared to the children's zoo one and the previous one in the camel house). It has large indoor and outdoor areas, is planted and sandy and has climbing and hiding places as well as good visitor viewing.

I also reckon that Meerkats are fatter in captiviy due to the higher meat content in their diet. Invertebrates make up the vast majority of a wild meerkat's diet which is then supplemented by small mammals etc, but in captivity it seems to be the other way around and meat is higher in fat content than insects.
 
Bele said:
I believe that Combe Martin claimed to have the largest meercat enclosure in the UK , not certain if this is still the case .
Click to expand...

Its about an acre in size, and speaking from experience a b*tch to rake!!!! Not sure how many meerkats are in there now but when i worked there 12 years ago there were 16.

It has quite a panoramic view right out to sea, one day the meerkats started alarm calling and looking out to the sea, eventually I spotted the problem, they had seem a buzzard, literally a dot on the horizon over a mile away
 
Tropiquaria has a poor meerkat enclosure. Its the worst I've ever seen. Its absolutely tiny and what looks like the air vent from the cafe comes out in it meaning the whole exhibit smells of chip fat. Id say the whole enclosure was roughly... seven metres across, five wide. But that may not be accurate because I'm going on memory.
 
Find the Fattest Meerkats.

The hunt is on- where has the fattest Meerkats?

I guess one reason they get fat in captivity is a more than ample diet which they don't have to search for themselves. Another may be that they can't travel around as they do in the wild over considerable distances or climb so much.
 
I have just returned from my first visit to Blackbrook, so I can help to answer my own questions. The enclosure there is one of the largest I've seen, with a nice sandy soil in which the animals have dug their own burrows. I think my only criticism would be that the enclosure was quite flat, so some extra elevated surfaces, such as a tree limb, would be nice.
The meerkats looked well and were quite active. Although Blackbrook is really a bird collection, I thought they had done a good job with their meerkats.

Alan
 
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i have this image of Gentle Lemur surreptitously measuring Meerkat waistlines at all the zoos he visits this summer. Watch out for keepers....

It is an interesting concept though-I too have noticed how fat they are in some zoos. You have plenty of subjects for study too as I imagine there are few zoos in Uk that don't have them nowadays either.
 
thanks i have recently begun upgrading the meerkats at blackbrook, I painted the indoor house, the outside is due to be painted very soon also some large rocks and large tree branch's are going in as soon as one of the digger drivers is free

i have taken the meat aspect of their diet down to about 10 chicks legs betwen the 5 of them and uped the insect and fruit/veg feed
 
Next challenge - a list of UK collections that do not exhibit meercat presently , I do not think there can be many !!

Zoos seem to have created a new form of the meercat , there is no comparison between the slim , athletic animals you see on the TV programmes such as 'Meercat Manor' and the fat creatures waddling around their enclosures .
 
Off the top of my head, Exmoor, Dartmoor and IOW don't keep them.[/QUOTE]

It has allready been stated in this thread that Exmoor do keep Meerkats!
 
bloodycurtus said:
thanks i have recently begun upgrading the meerkats at blackbrook, I painted the indoor house, the outside is due to be painted very soon also some large rocks and large tree branch's are going in as soon as one of the digger drivers is free

i have taken the meat aspect of their diet down to about 10 chicks legs betwen the 5 of them and uped the insect and fruit/veg feed
Click to expand...

Splendid! It's nice to learn that we're thinking on the same lines.

Alan
 
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