Meerkat camera contest

We visited the kats on Friday in the late afternoon. This time we lowered the camera into the enclosure and were met with enthusiastic actors ;-)

Sayuri was the first to have a close look. As you will realize, she still isn`t too steady when standing up and looking up at the same time. She will only stand up, if it can`t be avoided, but her curiosity will often take the upper hand and she will come close and explore. I already had her attention with a cherry-shaped red keyring pendant for which she also stood up to explore.

As you will also realize, she still has trouble walking backwards and will often do some strange and funny summersaults.

She likes walnuts very much and will play endlessly with the shells defending them furiously from everybody.

At 2:48 in the video, it looks, like somebody is licking the lens ;-)

The kats were very interested in the dangling lens cover and would bite into it and pull at it relentlessly. Caruso in particular is very intent on biting and pulling, she will also go for your fingers, whereas Sayuri will mostly sniff at them and take a gentle nip. Snoutie is also very likely to bite. All of them are so very curious and none is shy.

When the 5 adult males were about the same age, they would never come as close, they were very shy. When they were older, I was bitten more than once until they had found out how to nip at my fingers without hurting me. And I am sure that Orlok always did it on purpose...

Once, when I was wearing a hooded sweater which features some tiny "horns" and I pulled up the hood, as it was windy, Orlok jumped right back and growled at me.

Stubby Tail would stand up and eye me curiously, taken some steps back and forth, never taking his eyes off the hood. You could see how he was trying to understand, what was going on. I wonder, if they remember the incident as "The Day of the Big Black Animal"...

So here comes the latest video of the three youngsters, they will be 4 months old in a couple of days.