Three newborn Meerkats crawled out of their den

Three Meerkats have been born at Beekse Bergen. The trio showed themselves outside for the first time last week, a pleasant surprise for visitors and caretakers alike.

Meerkats are born blind, deaf and bald after a gestation period of about two and a half months. They therefore hide in their burrow for the first few weeks. Even caretakers therefore do not know exactly what is happening. Around the third week, Meerkats occasionally come out. So in all likelihood, the trio is now about a month old.

Three meters underground
Meerkats, native to Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique, live underground in long corridors. These are sometimes as much as three meters underground. The systems have seventy to ninety entrances and consist of different rooms. For example, there is a "bedroom" and there are "toilet rooms.

This underground structure protects the small predators from their enemies, such as birds of prey, as well as from extreme temperature differences in their habitat. For example, it always stays around 23 degrees Celsius here, while outside it can be between -4 and 40 degrees Celsius.

Film: Brenda de Jongste