15 photos of a shy little meerkat

For an animal lover, finding a newborn puppy is a source of ecstasy. But for the Japanese photographer who identifies as mamekoro51 the meeting was even better. While visiting Inokashira Natural Cultural Park in Musashino, Tokyo, he met a lovely family of meerkats with newborn pups. But a "baby" meerkat was rather shy with the camera. At least in the first contacts.

Cautiously, the little meerkat hid behind a wall, apparently afraid of the camera. More familiar, the “baby” began to look funny. The result? Everybody in love.

Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert, Botswana, much of the Namibian Desert, southwest Angola and South Africa. A meerkat clan usually has about 20 meerkats and some superfamilies may have 50 or more members. In captivity, the average lifetime of a meerkat is 12 to 14 years. Already in nature, about half of that.

Females who have no children usually care for and feed the alpha couple's offspring, and to protect them, often put their lives at risk. The young meerkat learns by observation and, as a result, end up imitating adults, who do not fail to give instructions to beginners.

Although they are altruistic and supportive, it is not uncommon for meerkats to kill young members in order to "improve the position of their children."

The meerkat's sexual maturation occurs around the age of two, and in a litter can be born from one to four young. They usually leave the lair between two and three weeks of life.

Inokashira Park Zoo, where this family was photographed, has a variety of species contributing to the conservation and rearing of Japanese squirrels, mandarin ducks and swans. There are also Asian elephants, Rhesus monkeys, raccoons, Amur cats, dogs, among others.