Meerkat on a stick

Well as you can see it was a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky. Had three guests and very well behaved meerkats. Cindy like clockwork was there to pose for her photos, and even the 6 baby's posed for a perfect picture. but to put icing on a perfect morning was her Majesty, Liefie with a perfect sentry pose i now call "meerkat on a stick".

Well Sundays are not the busiest day's for me and the meerkats, for i like to spend the morning in church with the family. But if you are in the area and its on a Sunday we might squeeze in a tour in the morning before church, so please don't hesitate to phone me for a booking.

Just got back from my afternoon visit to see where they are sleeping. Not a bad looking sunset, just freezing cold.

Hi everyone

what a fresh ,crisp morning after some rain and a hint of snow on the mountains. They said it was going to be 3º this morning and it surely felt like it.

Well Cindy poked her head out of the hole at about 08h26, followed shortly by one of the three musketeers, and i must add completely the wrong side of the burrows.

It did not take to long for Cindy witch i named after the manageress at DE Zeekoe , it should have been named after Cindy Crawford cause every time she see's a camera she forgets about every thing and comes running to pose about 2 m away.

Moner the dominant male was very comfortable with the guests and did not complain once.

My guests were three very nice people from the UK.

retrieved cellphone

On 25th of January this year Liefie our dominant female had baby's. On the same day i found a fresh 2m long cobra skin on the same burrow system about 3m away from the hole where she had the baby's. In the first 3 weeks they moved the pups 2 times and after one of these occasions i was bending over one of these holes to listen for survivors when my phone fell out of my pocket and slid down the burrow. Now as you know these burrows can be up to two and a half meter deep, so with meerkats, baby's and cobras down there i was not putting my head or hands down that hole to look for phones. The outcome was a new phone and sim card. but after having the same simcard for 6 or7 years a lifetime of friends and family numbers and info was on that phone. so after making sure they were not moving back into the same burrow for at least 4 months i eventually took the plunge and with the help of a long, thin spade, a sharp torch and my head and shoulders down a hole like an aardvark without a tale, i eventually retrieved my phone. After some cleaning and blowing and of course a good charge the phone was as good as new. Disappointment tho they did not take one good picture while they had the phone and luckily they did not make any long distance calls to the Kalahari.

(Paul and Desiree Gardiner) & (Alexander Gert) On meerkat safari in South Africa.

Hi every one

What a beautiful morning. I'm so glad the people that forecast the weather dont have a clue what they are doing, otherwise this would have been a cold overcast morning. Well as you can see it turned out a beaut. Had 3 very nice people on the tour, all from the land down under. All the meerkats behaved even Moner sat there all quiet not even one sound out of him. Only dodged me bigtime, we were standing talking and the next moment they ducked into the thick shrubs and then they were gone, no sight or sound.

Ok to give you some insight, My name is Devey and i do the Meerkat tours on a farm ( De Zeekoe ) just outside Oudtshoorn in the little Karoo South Africa. I started doing these tours in November 2009 and it is not called meerkat magic but Meerkat adventures (www.Meerkatadventures.co.za).

You might have heard all the story's, but i will give it to you straight. I took over the tours, not because my predecessor was bad at what he did but just that he became unreliable, and the owners of De Zeekoe did nothing wrong to him but he brought it on himself. So i hope we cleared that out of our way.

When i took over in november their were only 6 meerkats in the group wich i named Liefie ( dominant female), Cindi (the only mature female other than liefie), Molly (a juvenile meerkat )

and then 3 babys aprox 13 weeks old. A couple of days later i noticed the precense of a mature male meerkat that was Very shy and obviously new to the group, and because he complained everytime he saw people i named him Moner.

Then on 25 January 2010 Liefie had 6 babys and all of them are still surviving.

That is all for today, hope to have more news tomorrow.

25-05-2010

Very overcast and cold day, Meerkats are very nervous today, don't know whats wrong. Will see how they react tomorrow morning.