The Moscow Zoo’s newest arrival - a meerkat pup

Three weeks ago, the Moscow Zoo’s family of meerkats welcomed its newest member. The pup, who weighs a mere 30 grammes, is now actively communicating with its peers, and is constantly running around and digging in the sand. Visitors can now see the pup and the rest of its 17-member family in the African Hoofed Mammals section.

The Moscow Zoo’s meerkats live in a large family headed by an eight-year-old female. She is the only female who has the right to bear young, while all the others play nannies by taking care of the pups, teaching and looking after them. The hierarchy among males is established during fights. Meerkats are born fighters; despite their small size, they fight fiercely for their status in the family and the territory shared with other mobs. Meerkats live in deserts in South Africa, and this largely affects their diet. These animals are immune to venoms, which is why they easily feed on snakes and scorpions.

The Moscow Zoo welcomed its first nine meerkats, which came from South Africa, back in 2009. They easily adapted to the new environment and now breed several times a year. The new pup became the second addition to the family this year, with the first pup being born in early February. It has grown up much since then, and looks just like other adult meerkats.

The Moscow Zoo invites visitors to come and see the meerkat family and its new pup. The animals are highly active during the daytime. They are constantly digging burrows and tunnels, where they instantly hide upon spotting anything dangerous.

This week, the Moscow Zoo also welcomed two baby ring-tailed lemurs. The young lemurs share a father, a male lemur named Bars, who was born in the Moscow Zoo as well. The babies’ mothers, female lemurs Mira and Bella, were brought to the zoo from Novosibirsk back in 2016, under the European programme to preserve the population of ring-tailed lemurs in captivity. The newborns probably will also participate in this programme to help increase the population of their species in other zoos someday. As of today, the babies are just over a month old and weigh around 90 grammes.