Antisipation

Got to the meerkat burrows yesterday. It was at least 3° cel, Better than the previous day's -3°

The meerkats started coming out and as they did, i started taking stock of the meerkats that i have left after the last couple of weeks of chaos. I realised i have only got 3 females left, the rest are all males. Well there is one that i am not sure of.

Males

Moner( dominant male). Boeta (oldest son who will reach sexual maturity very soon. born 25th Jan 2010 ). One male, born 25th August 2010. One male born November 10 /2010. and one male, born 30 January2011.

Females

Liefie (Dominant Female). Molly the rebel (Oldest daughter, born August 2010). One Female born 25 August 2010. And one meerkat that i'm not sure of it's sex yet.

The reason why i started counting was, that Liefie did not come out of the burrows, and Molly and the other young female kept going back down. This odd behavior usually means that Liefie is having baby's.

The male's eventually left to go and forage leaving the girls to tend to the maternity ward.

So to every one that i have told that Liefie still have about two weeks left, i am sorry i misjudged myself with the thick winter fur on her body.

And you all will have to wait till i have more news. (3-4 weeks)

Confusion

Must have been the most confusing couple of day's of my life.

First the younger females started leaving the family, then Molly left and then came back.

then the whole family disappeared and molly came back full of blood. Then molly took on some of the outcasted females and a wild male. Then the whole family reappeared and Molly joined them again. Then molly left again and 3 day's later she came back, then Nicky left and joined the other outcasts on the edge of the territory. This morning Nicky was back sleeping in the same burrow system but in a side hole, but sneaked away before the others really woke up.

I feel like M&M's or smarties in a tumble dryer. This will teach me to go and get involved with a female orientated group of animals. I think i should have stuck with my horses.

But tomorrow's another day with another episode of the Meerkat ville soapy.

‎"Have faith in God." - spoken by Jesus in Mark 11:22

I cannot explain this, I do not know where they went for 2 day's, but they are back. After two day's of stressing, Finding only Molly full of blood, not knowing where to start looking, and also how do i do tours without meerkats. I woke up this morning with one of two choices, I can find a new group of meerkats habituate them and in a couple of months i can do tours again. Or i can put my faith in God and trust in his promise. Matthew 6:34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

So i resided on God and to take whatever comes my way.

And when i got to the meerkat site this afternoon all 13 meerkats were there, not a scrach on them, as if they have never been gone. Molly has even rejoined the family, no sign of her two companions.

Hopefully The male has taken Tinkie and went of to start their own family somewhere.

Would love to know where they were, but i wonder if we would ever know.

New! everything is new.

It is amazing how life can be so smooth on morning when you wake up and 7 hours later it is upside down.

So Last night just Molly and a 1 year old meerkat called Tinky. I came home hoping to find them all at the burrows this morning, but no joy. Molly took me on a" wild meerkat chase" the whole morning. She would stop every couple of minutes and send out distress calls. She can move for a wounded meerkat. At a stage she had me running to keep up. and then she just stopped, and sat watching me. Left her there and went walking ±15 km and only saw two wild meerkat in the distance. Just went home for a couple of hours to eat lunch. When i got back to meerkat ville There were still no sign of the rest of the family, but a whole new development took place. Molly has kind of realized the rest of the family is not coming home, so she has taken over the territory and brought home a new man. So when i left tonight we had a new dominant female and a new dominant male. Only problem is i am sitting with the same problem as i had with Moner who also joined the Family un habituated. And now i will have to do tours withe only 3 meerkats, at least for the next 75 days, till Molly give us some new baby's

Chaos in Meerkatville

This is scary. Went to Meerkat ville this afternoon, Camera, recording device all ready for action. I found Molly sitting all by her self at the burrows. I gave her a scolding for leaving her family again after the beating she got 2 days ago. I then just sat with her and took some photos of a steenbok walking past us at about 30 meters. when i look back at molly there was another meerkat with her and molly was standing facing me and she had blood all over her hip.

There were no sign of any of the other meerkats. I went to all the other burrows in our territory without luck.

A hundred questions are going through my mind.

What attacked them ???

Where are they????

Are more of them hurt???

Darkness caught me and i will have to look for them tomorrow morning.

I will fill you guys in on news tomorrow.

Clever Molly

So first it was one of the younger daughters that got casted out and are now living on her own in one of the other burrows in the territory. She is still coping and every now and then she moves in closer to the family, but they are still very hostile to her.

Then the day before yesterday (Sunday 31 July) it was molly's turn. This is really weird, because because usually a male meerkat from a neighboring group would come and lour a female away, mate with her and then they would go and start their own family. But twice no our females got sent marked by a male and got abandoned by the male only to got outcasted by the family as well.

Luckely Molly is a clever and world wise Meerkat and after a big beating by the family she managed to get some sent on her and they let her stay. She is now back in the family and is slowly working her way up the ranks back to a respectable position in the family.