My name is Samantha and I am the meerkat keeper here at the Los Angeles Zoo.
The male meerkats arrived a few months ago and we put them into the exhibit so they could
get the lay of the land.
And then, once the females arrived and they finished their quarantine process, we decided
that that would be the best place to introduce them.
It's a little bit more of a neutral spot so that there's no territoriality that could
cause a fight.
Genetically speaking, these meerkats were destined for each other.
But whether or not they actually like each other, it's a big question mark.
So, until you get them in the same room together, you're never really sure.
So, we brought the males up to the quarantine.
We crated them all up into their individual crates.
This is Frankie, who we saw earlier.
He's the littlest.
So we did something called the 'howdy' process with the meerkats.
That's a pretty common way to introduce any animal at the zoo.
We try to gauge how well the animals behave with each other through some kind of barrier.
We cordoned off the one side for the females, and one side for the males.
We put a piece of fine mesh in between them, so that they could smell each other, see each
other, hear each other, so we could get a better sense of how their behaviors were
before we actually put them together.
Just like the name says, they're saying 'howdy' to each other.
And if we see any kind of negative behavior, we can extend that process out, to try to
see if that aggression, or that behavior, will go away.
Or, if we see nothing, then it will give us a better sense of how the actual introduction will go.
Again, we try to set up everything so that it will be successful.
Generally, male groups want to go with female groups.
This is the perfect example of how, even in new situations, they're just, they're not nervous at all.
They're more curious and investigatory than anything else.
They just want to know what's going on.
So, by bringing in the all male and the all female groups, there was less likely of a
chance of having any kind of issues with the introduction.
And from the beginning, they were pretty much sniffing each other, and sitting at that mesh
and checking each other out, but there was really no aggression at all.
The males were already bonded, and the females were bonded, then it was just moreso about
integrating them as a group together.
You don't want to do anything that's going to add extra stress.
So, if they're showing interest in seeing each other, with no signs of aggression, you
want to move forward so you don't add frustration, which could lead to unnecessary fighting.
They kind of let us know what the next step is, in a sense.
Okay, we're good!
Once we took that barrier down, they went ahead and actually met each other physically,
and there were absolutely no problems at all.
Just as we expected.
So, it was a good outcome.
And then after that, we gave them another day to, kind of, hang out together, get to
know each other a little bit better.
And then, we crated them all back up individually.
We didn't want to just pile them all up into one crate.
We wanted them to kind of get to know each other for the first experience on their new
exhibit as individuals coming together, and not have anybody have the upper hand.
Especially some of the males that had already been on the exhibit.
So, we had scattered their food all around the exhibit, and released them all into the
exhibit at the exact same moment to make sure that they all had access to food.
That there would be no fighting over the food, since meerkats don't share very well.
So we definitely tried to, again, set them up for success and give them every option
available to them so that there's no -- there's nothing to fight over.
But, again, you never really know what your outcome's going to be until you get there.
They seem to like each other a lot.
And their hierarchies apparently are very stable because there's been no challenging amongst
the males, no challenging amongst the females.
Yeah, so now the wait is on for baby meerkats.
Hopefully we'll get some in the next few months.
Fingers crossed!
As a keeper, it's always wonderful getting to see your animals have, you know, a great
home where they feel safe, they get tons of food, they get really great vet care, they
get lots of enrichment.
They have just a wonderful life, and it's very fulfilling for me to be able to be the
person that provides that stuff for them.
Meerkats are ambassadors for their species, so it's a really important thing to have animals
that are charismatic like that.
That bring people in to the zoo, because they are helping the zoo accomplish other missions
with conservation.
So when you come to visit the Los Angeles Zoo, your ticket pays for those conservation efforts.
When you come to see the meerkats, you're also helping to support those other programs
for animals that are endangered like the California condor, snow leopard, et cetera.
It's really important to have those species that people are excited about,
to come in and see them.