Meerkat Watch

Have you seen this meerkat? Officials at the Honolulu Zoo say that Hulu, their 11-year-old meerkat, has gone missing. He hasn’t been seen for a week, and his brother Kapa is taking the disappearance pretty hard. Hulu’s keepers say that meerkats are social and not prone to wander far from home or family, but are also feisty enough to have fended off a kidnapping attempt.

Underground escape attempts would be thwarted by concrete, and zoo staff say they’ve checked out all the meerkat burrows. But they concede Hulu may still be in hiding, or even wandering the zoo grounds.  If he’s actually jumped the fence?  He won’t be starting a family any time soon.  He’s been “fixed,” an indignity I’d certainly go into hiding over.

Even though meerkats are “in” these days, they’ve always been a favorite of mine. I’ve sometimes suspected I was one of these skittish creatures in a previous life. Or maybe an ocelot. But that’s a story for another time. [KITV]