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Sheffield's cutest pets? - PICTURES
THEY'RE clever, inquisitive, lively and impossibly cute - but don't get the idea that keeping meerkats is 'simples'!
Just ask animal lover Sallie Rainbow - she's had three of the little fellas since last autumn and knows giving them a home is a big commitment.
The creatures from the Kalahari have gained a high profile, thanks to popular documentaries such as Meerkat Manor.
Then came Alexander - an animated version featured in a TV ad campaign who quickly became a cult figure with his 'simples' catchphrase.
Sallie keeps her meerkats at her home in Dronfield, along with the rest of a lively menagerie which features North American skunks, raccoons, genets, kinkajous and a variety of reptiles.
The 51-year-old been keeping animals with a difference since she was a child, and regularly takes them into St Luke's Hospice at Whirlow, where she works as wellbeing services manager.
The meerkats have been the most recent and popular visitors, creating plenty of interest among the residents.
"I have two males and a female, two I took in as youngsters, the other was a tiny baby who had been mauled by his mum," Sallie said.
"They are fascinating creatures - very lively, very friendly and very inquisitive. They operate with the female as the matriarchal leader, which is just the way it should be!"
Sallie said the current popularity of meerkats was in some ways a concern - as it could encourage irresponsible ownership.
"They are not easy animals to keep if you are a novice, it takes a certain degree of experience," she said.
"It's not like keeping a rabbit in a hutch, and they aren't as easy to handle when they are adults. They need space, heating and the right diet.
They eat crickets, meal worms, day old chicks as well as fruit and veg.
"Their food has to be buried every day in the sand in their pen so they can dig it up as they would in the wild.
"But they are rewarding - very clever, curious and playful. They need plenty of tunnels and they need company. They live in gangs - but they enjoy human company too, they treat you are their matriarchal leader and they look up to you."
Meerkats live longer in captivity than in their desert homes, as there are no predators such as birds of prey to cut their lives short.
Now Sallie is looking to her next project - she is seeking a Dangerous Wild Animals Licence so she can take in an Asian leopard cat.
"They aren't quite as formidable as they sound though - they aren't that much bigger than a domestic cat," she added.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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