Abandoned baby meerkat nursed back to health by zoo keepers

A baby meerkat rejected by its mother has been nursed back to health — in a margarine tub.

Simples, who was the size of a thumb when she was born, was found close to death on the edge of the meerkat enclosure during a cold snap by keepers at Exmoor Zoo in Devon. She weighed only 18g (½oz) and had been abandoned by her mother because she was the runt of the litter.



Staff spent six weeks hand-rearing her with milk and she now weighs a healthy 238g.

Lynn Reynolds, one of the keepers, said: “At first I thought she was dead, but luckily we got to her just in time.”