Hey, that is a GREAT web site! Just what I needed, another reason
to blow off work!

Here is a good page from the site above that tells you a bit about
their individual personalities and gives you a glimpse of how the
narrator/story writer presents them:

http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/meerkat/meet/meet.html

Also, they are WAYYYY cuter moving. They move FAST
and their faces and eyes are so expressive.

You know, I looked at the Animal Planet Web site for Meerkat Manor, and
they have a poll where you can vote for your favorite meerkcat. By far
everyone's favorite is Shakespeare! (I voted for him too!) I suppose
because he nearly died after being bitten--again, he was the brave one
and tried to oust the snake--and he was brave trying to defend the
burrow against the Lazuli. Anyway, none of the other meerkats have
anywhere near as many votes.

If this were a scripted tv show, then Shakespeare would be back
mid-season, you know? But unfortunately it's not, so I just think he
disappeared and is probably dead, just as they said. They have a lot of
cameras but if he got dragged off into the bush by some of the Lazuli,
what happened must not have been filmed.

Regardless, this has become such a popular show because of the way it
is written--they have personified the meerkats and are really good at
creating suspense about what will happen next! I am still sort of mad
at Youssarian for letting the one pup die, but if he is able to become
the dominant male in the Lazuli group, well, that should be pretty
interesting.
-yngver
-yngver

Interesting observations.

I went to the Animal Planet Web site and read a bit more about how the
show is made. One reader said the animals are marked with dye to keep
track of which group they are in, but I haven't really noticed that. I
assumed those were natural markings.

However--and I don't think this is really a spoiler, but if you don't
want to know what anything more about Shakespeare and Tosca, quit
reading now:

According to the producers, they don't really know what happened to
them. They didn't find their bodies, so it's possible they lived. But
just as was stated on the program, likely Tosca did not survive the
winter by herself, and it's quite possible Shakespeare died in the
burrow defending the pups. It's also possible he got fed up with the
Whiskers group and went off the reserve to join a different group of
meerkats that is not being filmed. Meerkats do die defending pups, so
that's what the writers decided to imply. All they know for certain is
that he disappeared some time shortly after the attack by the Lazuli.
However, since the Lazuli didn't kill the pups, one assumes Shakespeare
successfully defended them, even though he might have died later of
wounds.

Perhaps not a very satisfying story but I like knowing that the writers
and producers are trying to keep everything factual, and when they
don't know what happened, they say so. In the show, the narrator (Sean
Astin) just says that Shakespeare hasn't been seen and neither has
Tosca, and likely they died. That's just the truth.

Whether the producers could be holding out and neglect to mention that
some time later, they did spot one of the missing meerkats, I don't
know.
-yngver

Oo! Don't tell too much! I am seeing the first season in reruns!

Yeah, poor girl.

Hopefully Mozart

Well, she may be learning. At least she chased Carlos away when he
tried to mate with her again! She can't show up at Mama's "smelling of
Carlos' colgne!" as the narrator once said.

Of course that depends if Flower's small group (They got

Yeah, that is really scary. It has got to be hard for the photographers
not to step in at some times.

The writers have done an excellent job anthropomorphizing them, I have to
admit.

I can't watch any of those because the subject matter is so nasty and
deplorable.  To me, that's a whole different thing than just seeing nature
by itself take its course.

brian