Stuffed meerkat toy used as surrogate mother by orphaned babies

November 28, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

A stuffed toy resembling a meerkat is being used as a surrogate mother for five baby meerkats in Oldbury.

Mom’s come in very different shapes and sizes, but the current mother of five orphaned meerkat babies is unique in that it is a ten-inch-tall stuffed animal with a hot water bottle inside.

The “mother” was the brainchild of Steve Rowlands, owner of Tropical Inc., an animal rescue center in Oldbury, West Midlands.

The baby meerkats lost their mother, Anika, due to complications with the birthing process and advanced age.

Rowlands told the Telegraph: “The babies are a month old now and they lost their mum just two days after they were born. We bought the toy to try and lessen the trauma for them and try and make things as natural as possible.”

“We put it in with them, and they just snuggled up to it like it was their mother. To recreate the warmth that Anika would have given off we also found a small hot water bottle we got the right temperature.”

“They now assume that the toy is their mum and they’re acting completely normally around it. Of course every hour we have to feed them milk ourselves, but use miniature little bottles which recreate how they would get it from mum.”

Rowlands explained that the surrogate arrangement is only temporary. Meerkats — popularized in the 2005 BBC show “Meerkat Manor” — typically are weaned away from their mother after approximately six weeks. Rowlands hopes to place the babies with their father after a six-week period.

“Until they are a bit older there is the possibility that the father might think they were not safe and kill them. The way we have done this with the surrogate mum has been absolutely ideal.”