So two of our meerkats were separated from the mob a while back. As a very social species, in-group fighting is relatively common, and its up to the keepers and curator to make the call when this escalates to a dangerous state. So we separated a male-female pair, and made plans to transfer them to another zoo. During this time, we kept them in the quarantine suite of our vet clinic, in a metal mesh enclosure about 30 square feet.
One day last week, they started looking a bit weird. Their eyes were sunken and dull, their coats seemed darker and less shiny. Zookeeper slang in this case is ADR – Ain’t Doing Right. We kept a close eye on them, then had the vet staff check them over, and monitored more closely their in- and output. They completely stopped eating for several days, and began vocalizing a lot more. They also became a lot more retiring, staying in their den box all day.
We were baffled. Their blood work and fecal tests came back negative. Nothing seemed to have changed, in their diet or environment. Except… we’d recently acquired a new animal. It had been housed in the next enclosure, separated by both the metal mesh and a sheet of plexiglass. It wasn’t a species we had been particularly worried about housing next to the little mongooses. And yet, they had become completely terrified. All the signs we saw were directly caused by their fear of their new neighbour. So, what fearsome creature had we exposed the poor little darlings to?
A rabbit!
We put up curtains and they were back to normal the next day. 