They have done it again

On the 26th of September i went out to the meerkats like every other afternoon to find the meerkats and see where they will sleep. Usually the are at the burrows at aprox 15 min before the sun go's down, but not that day. Now when i don't find them in that time i have to look at all the burrows in the burrowing area before it get's to dark. The burrowing area is about 25 hectare 's big, that gives you a circumference of roughly 3 km, and that night i walked around the burrowing area 4 time's to make sure i do not miss them somewhere at one of the secondary burrows.

Halfway through my 5th lap of the area, in almost total darkness i found Molly looking very lost and sitting at the main burrows.

I assumed that they were trapped somewhere and only made it home very late, and i thought that Molly were the last one to go down into the burrows. So i went home.

The next morning i arrived at the borrows with 4 guests in tow. And there in the ray's of the morning sun was the silhouette of Molly looking out for the rest of her family. That gave away that she was home alone, because she never got up before the other meerkat's.

So for the second time this year the family has vanished or went on holiday, sleeping at their holiday home and i don't have a clue where that is.

So against my principal of putting radio collard on my meerkats i have decided to now buy a radio collar. So if anyone knows where to buy radio collars and equipment i might be in the market.

That afternoon i went and tried to find them. i even followed Molly on a couple of wild goose chases but no success. On our last fruitless walkabout to no where madam Molly started developing some urgency to get back to the main burrows and lo and behold there their were.

Liefie's second pregnancy for this season in developing nicely and it should happen arround the end of ocktober, if my calculations are correct.

No baby's

It is official, none of the baby's born on 16 august survived.

Meerkat baby's are born blind and naked. They then spend 3 to 4 weeks underground while the grow fur, develop eye sight and developing their motorized skills. At aprox 4 weeks they are strong enough to follow their siblings to the surface. They then spend the next couple of day's around the burrows just fine tuning their movement and running skill's.

So if the 16th of August was the day they were born, Then the 13th of September would be 4 weeks from then and the family has now moved 300m away to another burrow I think we can safely say the baby's did not make it.

Now if things work out like they should and Liefie (dominant female) has conceived shortly after the birth of the baby's, the next baby's should be born on ± 30 October.

The count down is on.

She's back!!!!!!.......Again.

What did i tell you yesterday, she has done it before and she will do it again. Molly was gone for 3 day's and this morning she is back as if she has never been gone. But so were one of the girls from August last year and she hasn't returned yet. No sign of any baby's yet and today is week 4. Will have to wait and see

Spring

After all the beautiful rain we had this year our semi-desert Karroo landscape has turned into a flowering wonderland. I had a couple of flower power children (Golden oldy's) from Cambridge university on tour the other day, and the meerkats started feeling neglected, the way the people were giving more attention to the flowers.

No sign of the baby's yet. They usually make their appearance between 3 -4 weeks, and tomorrow it will be 4 weeks precisely. And with previous baby's they always left baby sitters the whole time, but this time there was only babysitters the first week, but since then no babysitters. I haven't seen Molly and one of the November 10, baby,s for 3 days now. I don't have a clue where they are but i'm not holding my breath yet as molly had done this to me before and then just arrive back home one day. I will check in the moment i have any news.

Normality

Every thing seem to have returned back to normal in Meerkatville after the chaos of last month. After Liefie had her baby's the whole family settled down and life just returned to normal. Only 9 of the original bunch remained. We have Liefie (dominant female), Moner (dominant male), Molly (oldest gaughter, born sometime middle 2009), Boeta (young male, born 25 January 2010), 1male,1female born 25 Aug 2010, 1 male, 1 female born 10 Nov 2010. And 1 male born 30 January 2011 .