Calif. zoos add meerkats and Tasmanian devils

The Los Angeles Zoo’s new breeding group of meerkats is now on exhibit.

The “mob” of meerkats includes four males that arrived from the Zoo de Granby in Quebec in September and three females that came from Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kan., in January.

The Los Angeles Zoo said the two groups of meerkats were slowly introduced to each other at a quarantine facility before entering their outdoor habitat together in late February.

Meerkats, which constantly tunnel and dig holes, are tiny members of the mongoose family and are native to deserts and grasslands on the southern tip of Africa.

The Los Angeles Zoo is rebuilding its meerkat collection with a genetically valuable group after its elderly meerkats died.

And in San Diego, two Tasmanian devils are settling into their new surroundings at the San Diego Zoo after a move from a zoo in Australia.

The Union-Tribune reported that the male and female devils named McLovin and Quirindi were recently released from quarantine into the Conrad Prebys Australian Outback exhibit.

They make for a total of three devils in San Diego, as part of an international program to save the marsupials from extinction. Zoologists hope they will eventually breed.

Associated Press