Meerkat Triplets Born!

Meerkat triplets have been born at the award-winning Drusillas Park in East Sussex and are now starting to venture out of their burrow and explore the world.

The friendly little meerkats have always been a popular at the zoo and the three tiny burrowers have been delighting visitors and making excellent progress.

Mum, Sage and Dad, Indigo welcomed the triplets just over 2 weeks ago and have kept their youngsters very closely protected for the first few days. They have now started to leave the den alongside their three other family members, with a babysitter supervising them at all times.

Zoo Animal Manager, Mark Kenward, commented: “We are absolutely delighted with the new arrivals. Our visitors really love to see the baby meerkats playing and enjoying the sunshine. They are very active little ones and they playfight all the time. All good signs of healthy progress.”

““We don’t know the sex of the babies and they have not yet been named, but we are hoping to pool some inventive name suggestions soon!”

“The new little family are all doing really well. It’s been a few years since we’ve had a breeding pair at the zoo, so these triplets are a real treat for us.”

Meerkats are very social creatures, living in complex underground burrows in highly organised groups. Only one pair of meerkats will breed within a mob, giving birth to two to five young at a time. However, all the members of the group will help to look after the youngsters and share the responsibility of raising the pups.

In the wild, meerkats are native to south-west Africa and are members of the mongoose family. They have long been a favourite at Drusillas so revellers to the zoo have been delighted by the antics of two tiny additions.