Back in August, Taronga Zoo‘s resident mumma and papa meerkat Nairobi and Maputo gave birth to two tiny little babby. TWO LIL’ TINY BABBY MEERKOOTERS.
Now, those two cheeky meerkat parentals have clearly been gettin’ to it in the breeding season of spring, because Nairobi has given birth AGAIN.
This time, she’s popped out a whopping SIX BABBY, which is the largest litter of pups that Taronga Zoo has ever seen. Meerkats only usually have 3 – 4 babies at a time, so those constantly-mating mates have got their paws absolutely full with childrearing.
Meerkat keeper and person whose job we envy more than anything in the bloody world, Courtney Mahony, said the amount of babies was giant surprise:
“We knew that Nairobi was bigger than she was during her previous pregnancies, but we definitely weren’t expecting six pups!”
But she said Nairobi appeared to be totes relaxed and confident caring for the big ol’ litter:
“She’s an incredible mother and seems to be taking it all in her stride.She’s so attentive to the pups and she’s getting lots of babysitting help from dad and her eldest daughter, Serati.”
Anyway, you likely scrolled to this part of the story anyway, because photos of meerkat bubs are the most important thing in the whole wide world (maybe not, but it’s literally all we can think about right now).
The sextuple siblings are yet to be named, as their sex is not yet known. However, keepers suspect there is 3 boys and 3 girls.
They were born on 7th November, but have only just started to venture out of their nest box and explore the Taronga‘s meerkat enclosure.
We have died from the cuteness. RIP us.
Source: Supplied.
Photos: Paul Fahy.
