Karnataka - Mysore   

Zoo visitors can now view Meerkats

Mysore: The visitors to Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens in the city will get to view the famed Meerkats two of which were released into a new enclosure on Wednesday.

The Meerkat pair was procured from the Singapore zoo in June 2010 but the public were not allowed to view them as they were quarantined and then allowed to adjust themselves to the new environment.

While one of the Meerkat is aged about 6 years the other one is aged 2 years. The Executive Director of the zoo K.B. Markandaiah said the Meerkats were healthy and had got used to the new environment and were now free from both the internal and external parasites.

The Meerkats are found in African continent and their habitat in the natural world extend across the Kalahari desert and Southern Africa, and can be found in broad sandy plains covered with scrub vegetation and they live in underground burrows, said Mr. Markandaiah.

The life span of the animal in the wild is about 10 years and they can live up to 15 years in captivity. Their diet includes worms, insects, rodents, lizards, snakes, scorpions, bird eggs, fruit and larvae.

The animals have short legs with long, thin bodies and long slender tails with a dark tip and their fur is short and greyish to tan. The males and the females of the species look alike and each of them measures up to 12 inches when it stands.

The Mysore Zoo has built a new enclosure with exhibit area measuring 20 X 22 ft and the exhibit area has been provided with glass view panel.

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