23 Photos Of An Adorable Shy Baby Meerkat Taken By Japanese Photographer Mamekoro

Published 5 years ago

If you’re not familiar with what a meerkat is, it’s one of those adorable mongoose-like animals recognized for hilariously standing on their hind legs to look around. And if you think adult meerkats are adorable, just wait until you see a baby one.

Recently, Japanese photographer mamekoro51 visited the Inokashira Natural Cultural Park in Musashino City, Tokyo, and came across an absolutely heart-melting sight – a tiny baby meerkat shyly peeking from around a corner. The photographer took many pictures of the cute baby animal and they instantly went viral on Twitter – check them out in the gallery below!

More info: Twitter

Image credits: mamekoro51

The tiny meerkat was shy at first but came out to say hi eventually.

Image credits: mamekoro51

Meerkats typically live in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa.

Source: Wikipedia

Image credits: mamekoro51

A “mob” or “gang” of meerkats usually contain about 20 animals but the number can go as high as 50. They live for around six to seven years in the wild but this number can double living in captivity.

Image credits: mamekoro51

Baby meerkats are taken care of by “babysitters” – female meerkats that have not produced offspring. They also protect the young ones by taking them underground if danger occurs.

Image credits: mamekoro51

Baby meerkats learn things like safely eating venomous scorpions by observing and mimicking adults.

Image credits: mamekoro51

Sadly, on some occasions, adult meerkats kill the little ones of senior members to improve the position of their own offspring.

Image credits: mamekoro51

Meerkats typically have about three pups in a litter. They leave the burrow when they’re 2 to 3 weeks old.

Image credits: mamekoro51

Aušrys Uptas

One day, this guy just kind of figured - "I spend most of my time on the internet anyway, why not turn it into a profession?" - and he did! Now he not only gets to browse the latest cat videos and fresh memes every day but also shares them with people all over the world, making sure they stay up to date with everything that's trending on the web. Some things that always pique his interest are old technologies, literature and all sorts of odd vintage goodness. So if you find something that's too bizarre not to share, make sure to hit him up!