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Friday, July 27, 2007

Vaporub solves meerkat gang-wars

Zookeepers at Paultons Park near Romsey, Hampshire, UK have solved their meerkat brawls with Vap-O-Rub. Meerkats attack newcomers unless they smell like family. The solution was to rub all the little critters with minty chest-sauce so that they all smelled alike.

Livestock manager Geoff Masson said: "It is normally extremely difficult to integrate new meerkats into an existing group - their usual instinct is to try to attack any newcomers.
"However, thanks to a suggestion from our vet, Kate Chitty, we were able to neutralise all odours by using a little of the VapoRub on the nose of each meerkat.
"The meerkats then all smelt the same to each other and gladly accepted the new arrivals."

Link (Thanks, B. Fezzi!)

(Photo entitled Meerkat 2 ganked from Ltshears's Flickr stream)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:17:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Stats (About our stats) defeat censorware Policies Our first five years' worth of posts in one file	View a recent day: August 20 \| August 19 \| August 18 \| previous days \| by month and year Friday, July 27, 2007 Vaporub solves meerkat gang-wars Zookeepers at Paultons Park near Romsey, Hampshire, UK have solved their meerkat brawls with Vap-O-Rub. Meerkats attack newcomers unless they smell like family. The solution was to rub all the little critters with minty chest-sauce so that they all smelled alike. Livestock manager Geoff Masson said: "It is normally extremely difficult to integrate new meerkats into an existing group - their usual instinct is to try to attack any newcomers. "However, thanks to a suggestion from our vet, Kate Chitty, we were able to neutralise all odours by using a little of the VapoRub on the nose of each meerkat. "The meerkats then all smelt the same to each other and gladly accepted the new arrivals." Link (Thanks, B. Fezzi!) (Photo entitled Meerkat 2 ganked from Ltshears's Flickr stream) See also: Short link amuse bouches for Friday posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:17:25 PM permalink \| Other blogs' comments View a recent day: August 20, 2007 \| August 19, 2007 \| August 18, 2007 \| August 17, 2007 \| August 16, 2007 \| August 15, 2007 \| August 14, 2007 \| previous days \| all BB archives by month and year Email this entry to: Your email address: Message (optional):	Boing Boing Sponsored by: Your Text Ad Here Get BB by email: