Meerkat portrait

Posting late again today, around noon. Yesterday, 6 October 2014, I managed to get over to the Calgary Zoo again. About a week ago, I had finally visited what used to almost be my 'second home', after not going since before June 2013, when Alberta suffered the devastating effects caused by our Flood of the Century. The Zoo had been under several feet of water, and I couldn't help but try to imagine what it must have looked like. The Zoo folks did such an absolutely incredible job of rescuing and moving so many creatures, large and small - just impossible to even imagine. It felt so good last week and yesterday to be able to wander round and enjoy the animals once again. Interesting how different two visits can be - for example, last week, I had a good view of the new trio of young male Mandrills (monkeys), but yesterday, they were outside in the old African Wild Dog enclosure where it is impossible to see and photograph them. Last week, there was no sign of the amazing "white" black bear, but yesterday I was lucky. You just never know what will be out and what will be hidden.

The Meerkats were in their usual place - a number of them are youngsters and they are so funny to watch. There was a very long, empty, cardboard (?) tube in their enclosure and one little one was determined to try and squeeze into it. I really thought it was going to get stuck inside, but each time it managed to back out of it, thank goodness.

"The meerkat or suricate, Suricata suricatta, is a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats, but some super-families have 50 or more members. Meerkats have an average life span of 12–14 years."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meerkat

Uh, oh, I've just discovered that there is now a Beta version of the Groups page. Hope it is an improvement for those who use Groups a lot.