Meerkat encounters, Oudtshoorn

Meerkat encounters near Oudtshoorn, Route 62.

© Chris Marais

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There is something magical about watching a meerkat greet a new day.

Go out before sunrise with Devey Glinister on De Zeekoe guest farm outside Oudtshoorn on the Route 62, and you’ll encounter meerkats in a non-invasive way, and will gain a real insight into their lives, within their natural habitat.

Meerkats hate the cold, so they’re only up once sunlight hits their burrow. By then, you’ll be seated on portable chairs in a semi-circle, and Glinister will have given you a full rundown on meerkats and their intriguing lives.

Actually, only 1 meerkat will come up initially – the sentinel. She’ll face the sun, arms at her side, absorbing heat through her ‘solar panel’ – the dark patch on her belly.

You’ll see her head swivelling, her dark eyes moving ceaselessly back and forth. She will study the people, then the surrounding bush, then gaze at the skies, on the lookout for the meerkats’ most-feared foes – birds of prey.

Then, 1 at a time, she will be joined by the others, and as sentinel she’ll give a quiet, regular chirrup, reassuring them that all is well. Zoologists call it the 'Watchman’s Song'.

They will all line up to greet the sun and warm up. Glinister will tell you that meerkats don’t have much fat at all, so they rely on the sun to rev up their metabolisms, somewhat like reptiles.

This colony of a dozen or so meerkats at De Zeekoe is habituated to humans. So while they won’t necessarily scamper up to you, they won’t run for the hills either, as a normal wild troop would.

After the warm-up, some of the younger meerkats will start to play. The adults will start digging here and there for grubs, and the meerkats will disperse into a loose group (still guarded by the sentinel, still incessantly scanning the horizons and skies).

And you'll follow them for a small while, learning something about a day in the life of a meerkat troop.

When it's time to go, you'll leave them to their mad scrabbling and insect hunts; and soon they’ll be all but invisible behind the short Karoo shrubs.