Yesterday we went to visit Ringo the meerkat at Whipsnade Zoo - he was adopted for me by my kids last Christmas. The zoo think it's best he stays there, although I'd have loved to bring him home!
Ringo is easy to recognise because he has lost the dark tip from his tail. He shares his enclosure with his brothers John, George and Paul: so sadly, no babies :-(
One of the particular skills Meerkats show is sunbathing - they are professionals!
Meerkats forage whenever they're not sunbathing, their food is hidden all over the place for them. They are constantly chirruping to each other, just keeping in touch I suppose. Bit like twitter!
There's always someone on "guard duty" though. Poor things, there is a gliding club nearby so there are frequently gliders going overhead - and of course the meerkats think they might be predators! At such times their chirruping changes - they have different calls for "look out guys - aerial predator!" and "look out - ground predator!" (Apologies to Felix for not recording them)
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the Kats...and found Mum and daughter hippo blowing bubbles!
Outrageously pink flamingoes reflected in their pond:
Elegantly postured giraffes!
This was unexpected - a group of penguins found a feather and were clearly playing with it:
for all the world like a gang of kids playing keepy-uppy with a football!
A highlight was seeing baby Ajang - he's less than 3 weeks old and gorgeous!
Finally - my friend Lorin had asked me (jokingly!) to bring her home a capybara so when I saw this in the carpark....
turns out it was a mara though, so I left it behind!
More pics tomorrow - I have a new contender for cutest-animal-in-the-world (sorry meerkats!)
