I took this photo a couple of decades ago in the Bronx Zoo. What are these animals?
Meerkats!
(missed the edit up there)
Adorable meerkats! One of my favorite critters in the world! Great picture!
If you’ve seen The Lion King, the character Timon is supposed to be a meerkat.
Meerkats! They’re cousins of civets and mongooses (mongeese?). They live in colonies, and they stand up on their hind legs to act as lookouts. Cute as hell.
There’s a whole “reality show” about them called “Meerkat Manor”…it’s like a soap opera produced by Mutual of Omaha…
The meerkat: ineffably superior to the mere cat.
Thanks guys! I didn’t recognize them, since they weren’t standing up.
They’re not exactly cousins of mongooses; they are mongooses (mongooses and meerkats are separate genera within Herpestidae, the mongoose family). Civets (Viverridae) and mongooses (Herpestidae) are both members of Feliformia, so those two groups do ultimately share a common ancestor.
That’s a really good picture.
Simples.
Look like Brooklynites to me.
It’s a little out of focus, in spite of some sharpening in Photoshop. I guess it’s the best I could do with the camera I had back then.