the story of the meerkats and the magic red bracelet

[misspinkpunkykat]

Why didn't you let them keep it?

[roguefem]

0:18 - Gimme that! The shiny is MINE!

I'm curious what they would do with it if you let them run off with it. Perhaps it would end up as a decoration in their favourite burrow? ;-)

[GirlMeerkat]

Meerkats are so cute, my cousin has a pet one in NY called Kain. I picked him up when he was a pup....

This video is soooo cute!!

I adore Meerkats so much!

~GM

[sPitternaut]

Wait...I live in NY! I figured they were illegal here. Where'd they get it?

[1977doctorno]

DO NOT KEEP MEERKATS AS PETS!

meerkats are animals with a very social behavior, they need their family, not humans!

MANY MEERKATS DO NOT SURVIVE, WHEN THEY WERE BROUGHT TO EUROPE OR AMERICA!!!

If you want to see meerkats, visit them in zoos - or in s-africa, where they can live free!

[Punkutatvidz]

These meerkats probably think that the red bracelet if food or something.

[Homealians]

soo cute!!

[delpoz1]

Dear YouTube friends: I agree totally with nyatnagarl. Meerkats are very fragile beings who should be kept (as with other animals) in their original environment.

[flavortheflame]

this is so cute

i love the noise that they make

[myloverkisshu]

meerkats are so cute ♥

[calandrea]

Me too, I love those sounds!!

[2007kingsboys]

lol these weerkats look like my cousin

[WildlifeDen]

They're so sweet! Aren't they just the most adorable little darlings you ever saw?

They just can't take their eyes off that bracelet. they must be thinking "Oohh what is that shiny red thing!"

They're so inquisitive. and I just love their little churring sounds.

don't be fooled though. they make pretty terrible pets. they scent mark everything. they dig a lot and they need lots of open space with sand and heat

[sakara75]

i know of no one that owns a meercat as a pet...never heard of it. Must come under the dangerous animals list

[SuricataObscura]

well, the try this in google:

merlin meerkat

you will find an article on merlin the houseproud meerkat

quote from article:

"We know a number of other people who keep meerkats and he (Merlin) is probably the tamest one in the UK."

[sakara75]

Ah yes reading up on it. It is an animal you have to apply to the DWAA for a licence as they come under dangerous animals laws.

That family has also dedicated their life to getting their meercat to the tame stage..oh and they also cost around £400 each.

We do have restrictions on what pets you can have in this country.

Even so...the idea of allowing people to handle what are wild animals...is asking for trouble

[nyatnagarl]

They cost 400 pounds? If you can give a price quote, that means the balance of supply and demand has created a stable price -i.e. there seems to be a free trade market for meerkats in the UK. It is also possible to buy them eg in the Netherlands, prices there are higher.

I don´t see why an animal being "somewhat costly" makes it correct to take a highly social animal like a meerkat and keep it under such circumstances. And 400 pounds is not expensive for an "exotic" animal at all.

[nyatnagarl]

Continued:

Sadly this means that after the meerkat movies come out later this year there will probably be a run on meerkats in those countries that allow free market trade in them at all. And the people will find they are hard to keep as pets, and will abandon them.

"The idea of allowing people to handle animals" has been around quite some time and it's called a petting zoo.

[nyatnagarl]

Continued:

"what are wild animals", an animal is wild when it needs to find its own food, needs to defend itself from predators and reproduces on its own. So, the meerkats you can watch on Meerkat Manor are wild (although habituated) because when they do noit find enough food, they starve, and when they overlook a predator, they are eaten, and the film team does not intervene.

[nyatnagarl]

Continued:

Any meerkat in an enclosure of a few hundred square meters is not wild, because it is fed with an artificial diet (show me any zoo that breeds scorpions, geckos and kalahari millipedes and hides them on the enclosure for the meerkats to find) and they are not wild because they are not exposed to predators (show me a zoo that releases eagles, cape cobras and jackals into its meerkat enclosure).

[nyatnagarl]

Continued:

Personally I think the idea of allowing private persons to keep social animals like meerkats IN THEIR HOUSES without consideration for their needs, is creating trouble... mostly for the animals. Oh but as long as you spend 400 pounds that´s OK. FOr Christ´s sake, some enthusiasts spend more than that on a single fish for their aquarium (which often also, should not be sold in the first place)

[nyatnagarl]

Continued:

Notice my gripe is not with private persons owning animals like meerkats as such (it´s not state vs private) its about providing them with a reasonable environment for their needs. If a private person creates a good quality meerkat environment why not, Mundenhof is also not a state run thing. But meerkats as HOUSE PETS? Shame on whoever does it

[evelyneland]

I find that it should be more control, it is stupid to give anything to these animals. At least in the kalahary, they are free and in peace! I'm agree with you sarah

[SuricataObscura]

I totally agree with you in that people should not feed those animals (or better all animals) with all kinds of crap, as they actually do, even in zoos.

[JStryker47]

Nice video. I'd like to go there some day. Meerkats are awesome.

[sakara75]

im glad those meerkats didnt break the bracelet...they could have choked on the beads..thinking they were berries or something.

Zoos have barriers for a reason.unless you are a zoo keeper you should not be reaching over to tease the animals.

[nyatnagarl]

Actually the meerkats are pretty good at telling apart the edible and non-edible. There are lots of visitors who do other things than 'tease' the animals, such as throw trash in (like red Coke bottle tops and all sorts of plastic stuff). Which the meerkats also find interesting but do not try to eat.

[sakara75]

we dont have any of that sort of thing in the Uk....thr nearest to hands on is domestic animals..wild animals are kept at being just that.

[SuricataObscura]

at least it is not legal to own meerkats as pets, which is legal in the UK.

[angelicque]

*giggles*

meerkats sure like bright colors, i had a similar experience regarding a bright orange scarf ;)

was this taken a a zoo?

[nyatnagarl]

It´s not actually a zoo, it´s a 'Tiergehege' that´s run from tax euros and donations and is free admission and unenclosed. The main goal is to provide an opportunity to get in contact with animals (ie you have many of the classic petting zoo animals, camel and pony riding, etc)