I’ve been hooked on Meerkat Manor since the first episode. It’s been fascinating getting such a close look into the lives of these creatures. Tonight was the season finale, and it looks as if Shakespeare, the meerkat who overcame a puff adder bite, may have
given his life to save his siblings from Big Cy and the Lazuli. He’s been discovered missing after the big attack.
Dang those evil Lazuli! Gosh dang them all to h-e-double-hockey-sticks. Yeah, I know, meerkats aren’t really evil, they have to compete to survive. But it’s hard not to pull for the Whiskers’ clan. On the plus side, Mitch looks he’s going to be a steady and responsible asset like his big brother, Shakespeare. And Tosca might be gettin’ some lovin’ and the chance to be matriarch to her own clan. I’m looking forward to September 29th, and the new season.
I think Shakespeare’s still alive. If, as I originally thought while watching the episode, he had crawled off somewhere to die and the researchers had found his body, I believe the editor would have included that footage in the season 1 finale. If his body never turned up, they wouldn’t have mentioned him in the teasers for season 2.
On an unrelated MM note, do we know who Tosca’s sire is? The show said that she was unrelated to Youssarian, and therefore a potential mate. For some reason I thought Youssarian was Zaphod’s brother, and if Zaphod is Tosca’s sire, then Youssarian and Tosca are fairly closely related. Am I misremembering something? Or did Flower have another partner before Zaphod, who would have sired her earlier litter(s)?
That raises an interesting question. Youssarian was the dominant male and Flowers’s mate before Zaphod took over. So if Zaphod isn’t Tosca’s father, then Youssarian can’t be either, because that would be too close of a relationship to mate. It’s possible Flowers may have mated in another clan, but wouldn’t she have left her pups behind? The Animal Planet website doesn’t make it clear. Or maybe in meerkat society, uncles and nieces aren’t considered closely enough related. It might only be taboo for parents to mate with children and for siblings to mate. This is only a WAG, I’m not a zoologist by any means.
I’m sorry, but the fight cracked me up! It reminded me of those bogus fights that they used to have in baseball. It looks like some serious butt-nipping! Oh, no!
I’m in the Shakespeare lives camp, for Selkie’s reasons.
I’m very happy that poor Tosca isn’t alone anymore. She did such a good job as surrogate leader.
Is there anything cuter than a gaggle of meerkats all standing up?
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn meerkats are perfectly willing to mate with close relatives. It’s just that the narration specifically said that Tosca and Youssarian were unrelated. Now, if I’ve misremembered the relationship between Youssarian and Zaphod and there’s no genetic relationship between them, then it would follow that if Tosca were Zaphod’s offspring, she would be unrelated to Youssarian. However, I could have sworn that the first episode (or so) indicated that Zaphod and Youssarian were brothers. I can think of worse excuses to rewatch the series to verify that.
