dailyanimals

Meerkats may be the most famous of the animals living at Meerkat Manor, but are they the cutest? Challenging them hard for the title of 'cutest animals at the Manor' are a family of yellow mongooses that live around the visitor compound. It's hard to argue with the cuteness credentials of a young yellow mongoose that will come and take food from your hand.

I deserve to be fed because I am so cute!

He would like me to tell you that he is particularly fond of cheese. Just so you know. In case it comes up, somehow.

A mongoose and his mother

You made a funny! Mongoose ROFL!

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I have some property up near Rackerby (CA) where I have put trail cameras out in the woods. These have picked up all the usual nocturnal critters -- skunks, foxes, raccoons, feral cats, stray dogs -- and last month, for the first time ever, a ringtail.

And so, in glorious monochrome, here is a ringtail wandering up a log:

There was rain at the Oakland Zoo today. I checked the weather forecast while I was hiding in the reptile house. "40% chance of showers", it said. Apparently "showers" is the new weather forecaster code for "a prolonged downpour of near biblical ferocity. You will be wet." And I was.

At least the otters were happy. They had discovered a new pond, which was muddy and full of sticks, and much more fun than their regular pond.

We've found a new pond! Can we keep it?

Bats have built-in rain protection. I was jealous.

Hyena had found a new treasure and did not care that it was raining.

Random sea otter hanging out with the sea lions at Santa Cruz pier on Friday.

A cute pair of young chipmunks that we encountered while hiking the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail on Sunday.

The Meerkat Manor researchers have two tricks up their sleeves for getting the meerkats onto the scales to be weighed. They have egg. And they have water. The Drie Doring meerkats are mostly not much interested in egg (it's not a natural part of meerkat diet, and if they're not introduced to it when young they may never learn to appreciate it), but they can usually be enticed onto the scales by using the water bottle.

But not today. Today they have found this:

"Why yes, we would much prefer to drink this scummy green water with floating dead ants instead of your boring clean researcher water, thank you very much!"

And then they all squeezed into the tiny patch of shade underneath the trough:

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I took four thousand photographs of meerkats while visiting the Meerkat Manor. It is taking me a while to sort through them all.

Anyway, here are all the individual photos of the Lazuli meerkats.

Up next: Drie Doring.

The meerkats of Lazuli

Christiana, pondering her new position as dominant female following the death of her mother, Young

Rufus (dominant male)

Hen, Shallot, Merlino & Muck

Finnlex (with Lust), Bernie, Griene Tsiis

O'Toolie, Mayer (wearing the Lazuli collar), Mauer (x2)

Dis-Grace, Caleb (x2), Cagliostro

Sutica, Merlino, Fran the Wu-Man, Flammkuchen

Pip, Drachentöter (aka Stumpytail), Bandersnatch, Jubjub Bird

The 7 Deadly Sins Litter: Lust (with Bandersnatch), Wrath, Greed, Gluttony (who has just killed an eland, apparently), and Sloth
(Pride and Envy are no longer around, sadly)

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This last Sunday I went to look for otters at the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area.

Grizzly Island is managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. In years past you used to be able to pay the entry fee at the entrance to the area, but now they have "economized" (I guess), and you are required to buy a pass in advance. The most convenient place for me to buy a pass is at our local Walmart. The CDFW Lands Pass comes out of the same system as the fishing and hunting licenses, so is handled by the Walmart sporting goods department, but good luck finding a Walmart employee who knows where to find it. Fishing and hunting licenses they know all about, but if you want to go to a Wildlife Area and not kill anything, well, apparently nobody does that.

For future reference: eventually we did find the Lands Pass listed under "Misc" in their system. Fortunately there is an annual pass available so I only have to do this once a year.

And I did find an otter, so it was all good.

Three photos of the otter's nose. Because you can never have too much otter nose.

Also, in the "interesting things that are not otters" category, there was a pair of turtles having a disagreement over which of them was going to get the prime sunning spot on their tiny reed island.

And a bird which I haven't been able to identify hunting insects over the water.

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The Lazuli are one of the oldest meerkat tribes living at the Manor. They and the Whiskers were the only two groups that I met in 2003 that are still around 10 years later. After losing out to the Whiskers and being relegated to the role of arch-rivals for the Meerkat Manor TV series, the Lazuli have gone on to take their revenge in the best way possible, have taken over much of the old Whiskers territory and have become one of the biggest tribes on the Manor (officially 33 members but some of them haven't been seen in a while, the best count we got was 28 meerkats).

The Lazuli were the only group that I was able to visit on a morning when they weren't being weighed, so I was able to take photos of them sunbathing as they woke up without being distracted by a researcher trying to lure them on to the scales with pieces of egg (in most cases the problem was less getting them on the scales, as it was getting the greediest meerkats off the scales to be able to weigh the others, which was entertaining but failed somewhat as a real natural wildlife experience).

The Lazuli

This photo of Muck on guard duty is one of my favorite photos from the trip. She may be just 12 inches tall but she is a meerkat of the Lazuli. Nobody better mess with her.

I am Muck of the Lazuli. This is where I stand.

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I'm in England, so it's time to visit the British Wildlife Centre!

A fox looking for noms

An otter who's noms are escaping!

Next week I am off to South Africa to visit with the meerkats of Meerkat Manor. There will probably be meerkats here when I get back.