News Archive

April 2004

Meerkats enjoy their Easter Egg Hunt with a difference

At Cotswold Wildlife Park, near Burford, the colony of Meerkats have their very own version of an Easter Egg Hunt.

In their natural habitat of the dry bush country of Namibia, Meerkats spend a lot of time digging for tasty morsels buried in the sand, such as tortoise eggs, tubers and insect larvae.

With such a strong instinct, the Meerkats at the Wildlife Park are often seen burrowing away in the sand in their enclosure. In order to give some reward for this natural behaviour, keeper Aaron Ransom hides fresh eggs in shallow scrapes in the sand then covers them over.

The Meerkats, meanwhile, have been diverted by a scatter feed of locusts and fresh fruit, and have not seen where Aaron has buried the eggs. But somehow, their natural instinct tells them that their hunt for eggs will be rewarded, so they start burrowing away.

When they find an egg, there is great excitement in the colony and often quite a struggle to break it open. Resourceful and intelligent, these small mongoose-like mammals cannot get their jaws around the egg, so they crack it open against a stone.

“It really is an Easter Egg Hunt with a difference” says Aaron “but it is important too for us to provide this sort of environmental enrichment for all our animals, to stimulate their natural behaviour. It also provides endless entertainment for our visitors!”

Want to Help?

A visit to the Cotswold Wildlife Park can now be even more worthwhile. By adopting an animal, you can provide a helpful contribution towards the costs of keeping and feeding the animals and supporting our conservation breeding programmes... click here for more information