Getting close and personal Part I - Möfzi, dominant female

It`s time to introduce the mob! Until now we still do not know the "real" names of our kats, but I hope we will be able to give them in the future.

The names used on this blog are our nicknames for the individual meerkats and are based on their characters and/or individual features.

"Möfzi" is really un-translateable, as it is not a real German word, but a descriptive word we made up meaning roughly that she is larger, heavier or "möfziger" than the others ;-)

So this is Möfzi:

• Möfzi is the oldest kat in the enclosure and somewhere between 8 and 9 years old
• Möfzi is the only female of the mob (not yet counting the babies)
• Möfzi is rather tall, her fur is light grey and she has a slightly bent tail
• Möfzi can rarely be heard making those little "brrpbrrp"-sounds, but her voice is very loud when she is making the chattering noises you hear, when meerkats either want to be left alone or do not want to engage into something for example play etc.
• Möfzi is very greedy and as a dominant she will guard her food closely hipslamming other meerkats, snarling and lunging at them
• you can sometimes pet her, when she`s in the right mood and she trusts you
• Möfzi has lost one of her lower canines, but she is still very able to eat all kinds of food
• Möfzi is proud mother of three

Here are some pictures of Möfzi (still with all lower canines):













Here are some videos featuring Möfzi on youtube. The first video shows Möfzi and the small, subordinate male Swingkat ("Schaukelmännchen"). He is one of her favourite "playthings" and he is also the small, dark meerkat on the picture above.



This video shows Möfzi devouring a cherry and playing with the stone.



And in this video I get very close and personal with Möfzi ;-) No, it did not hurt!