‘Meerkat Manor’s’ drama returns for a third season

Viewers come to care about the Kalahari meerkat families and their struggles.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Animal Planet’s “Meerkat Manor,” like the foot-long mammals whose behaviors it tracks, is a fascinating story of resourcefulness and survival.

In a harsh environment, with distractions and predators everywhere, the program, like the creature, has beaten the odds and thrived.

Meerkats, unless they’re lucky enough to be the dominant group in their territory, live, on average, three or four years. “Meerkat Manor” begins its third season at 8:30 tonight, so you’d expect things to be a little tense for this group of Kalahari foragers.

And boy, is it ever.

In the season’s first episode, the Whiskers, with Flower as the dominant female, have been forced out of their burrow by another meerkat group, the Commandos, and forced to cross the open plain. Before the episode is over, the Whiskers have to try to do what was done to them, and force another clan, the Zappas, to surrender their territory.

This, though, is with a Cape cobra in their path, and an eagle owl above it. If that’s not bad enough, the battle separates Flower and most of the Whiskers from her new pups, who end up being meerkat MIAs, along with Sophia, who gets special points for bravery, saving the little ones at least twice.

Cruelty of nature

In the season’s first three episodes, though, not all ends happily. This is nature, after all — filmed with helpful explanations of behavior, and giving cute names to the meerkats individually and collectively, but nature nonetheless. When the Zappas move to reclaim their territory during a daring raid, you fear the worst. And when Flower’s estranged daughter, Mozart, resurfaces, pregnant, a battle ensues for the role of dominant female — and Mozart’s rival, her own half sister, will seek an advantage by going deep into Mozart’s burrow, and, once there, sinking even lower.

If you watch with small children, be prepared to answer, or deflect, questions about the food chain, Darwinism and death.

If you don’t have any children handy, though, don’t be embarrassed. “Meerkat Manor,” like a live-action “Watership Down,” is perfectly OK to watch as an adult. In fact, long after the program is over, you’ll be thinking — and worrying — about Sophie, Mitch and the rest of their clawed clan as they face a steady stream of potential meerkatastrophes.