Meerkats as TV stars---a look into Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor

Besides Lion King, meerkats had little to no time in the Hollywood spotlight until the introduction of Meerkat Manor--a British TV program brought to the United States in 2005. This series drew fans instantly--with over 4 million viewers--and ran for 4 seasons until it was canceled indefinitely from Animal Planet's show line-up in 2008.

Meerkat Manor followed a meerkat family the documentary crew named Whiskers, one of many family clans in the Kalahari Desert. The show fictionalized the lives of meerkats and portrayed them as a royal family, making them and their actions seem very humanlike through the use of narrators and comical one-liners about the animal's behaviors. Although somewhat unrealistic, the show gave viewers an insider first-look at how meerkats live their daily lives. Constant filming--including night vision, underground cameras--gave very real depictions of how meerkats interact with one another and their environment on a daily basis.

Critics complained that the show was too unrealistic, making animal behavior seem too human-like and that a meerkat's daily life was portrayed in a way that would be favorable to viewers instead of how it occurs in nature. For instance, many mating scenes were cut out to make the show PG viewable. There was also a lot of editing done to make the show "less boring" and cut out a lot of daily foraging and grooming behavior done by the meerkat clan being followed.

All in all, Meerkat Manor was a huge success. It gave meerkats their "15 minutes of fame" and gave the public more insight into how they live. Some say the success of the show will be beneficial should meerkats ever become a threatened or endangered species. This unusual documentary series put a spin on typical educational films and made it viewable to a wide range of audiences. The Whisker family is now a household name across the world--with viewings not only in the US, the UK and Australia. Watch out Angelina, Flower might be the first meerkat with a star on Hollywood Blvd! :)

                                    Sophie, one of the Whiskers family babysitters looking curiously into the camera

Watch a video about how the researchers made this documentary without hurting the meerkat clan or it's home. Also meet several of the stars of the show! http://animal.discovery.com/videos/meerkat-manor-behind-the-burrow/

Resources:
http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/meerkat/meerkat.html
http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/meerkat/about/about.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meerkat_Manor