Meerkat Manor

***Meerkat Manor*** is a British television series produced by Oxford Scientific Films and aired on Animal Planet International in the United Kingdom with narration by Bill Nighy. Because of its popularity, it was aired on Animal Planet in the United States with narration by Sean Astin, who was later replaced by Stockard Channing for the fourth and final season.

The series is noted for breaking new ground with the nature documentary format, giving viewers a long-term, intimate look into the lives of the meerkats, breaking the wall between viewer and subject as with most documentaries. A television prequel film, *Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins*, followed in 2008.

## Premise

The show follows several groups of meerkats, who act communally for the benefit of the groups in which they live. These groups are typically led by a dominant female and male, who maintain exclusive rights to have offspring. The group followed most closely is known as the Whiskers family. This group was chosen because of its matriarch Flower, an unusually successful dominant female who led the group for five years. Flower died from a snake bite during season three and was succeeded by her daughter Rocket Dog.

Animals in neighboring groups are highlighted as well, such as the Lazuli, who were frequently in competition with the Whiskers family. This group returned for the second season as a source of roving males, even though their dominant male, Big Si, died between seasons. Another group, the Commandoes, led by a one-eyed male named Hannibal, introduced themselves by attacking the Lazuli burrow, killing a pup and severely wounding the babysitting adult. The Commandoes became the new major rivals in the area, killing the pups of evicted Whiskers female Mozart and taking over some of the Whiskers' territory.

The Whiskers' new neighbors were the Zappa and the Starsky. The Zappa, although smaller than the Whiskers, attacked frequently, and when they fled after one attack, the Whiskers - in a rare occurrence - adopted an abandoned Zappa pup. The Starsky group, on the other hand, was no threat to the Whiskers. Formed by a trio of Flower's daughters permanently evicted from the Whiskers, the small group constantly struggled as they were ravaged by illnesses, predators, and a lack of new pups. The Starskys succumbed in the penultimate episode, with the death of the last survivor, Mozart, who was killed by a jackal. Former Whiskers female Maybelline broke away from the group at the end of season three, forming a new group called the Aztecs which became the Whiskers' main enemy in season four.

## Episodes

Main article: *List of Meerkat Manor episodes*

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## Reception

*Meerkat Manor* has been well-received by critics and audiences. In October 2007, it had become Animal Planet's top series, with an audience of more than four million in the United States alone. In the U.S., its first episode was viewed by one million viewers, and the second and third series were watched by approximately 800,000 viewers each. The fourth season premiere did not fare well, with fewer than 500,000 viewers. The viewership of the on-demand videos offerings grew to 20% in September 2007, when Discovery offered each third season episode, video capsules of seasons one and two, top ten moments of the show, and a memorial sequence for Flower.

A common source of criticism from fans was the show's non-interference policy regarding the meerkats, asking why the film crew and researchers did not provide aid, such as anti-venom, to any individuals who were bitten by snakes or euthanize any that were injured or dying. US executive producer Mick Kaczorowski pointed out that *Meerkat Manor* was a show about the real lives and deaths of meerkats. The research group has a policy against film crews interfering with natural events, "because they don't want to have an effect on the gene pool by saving a weaker meerkat [or] affecting the outcome of what's natural in the Kalahari". As the research project is monitoring, "the breeding success and survival of individuals, and the factors that affect reproduction and survival", interfering in the natural processes would render the research results invalid. The one exception to this rule was that researchers euthanize certain meerkats which contracted tuberculosis, to prevent outbreaks that would threaten both the meerkat population and nearby cattle.

The series is noted for following a much different style of format than most other documentary programs. While most maintain a social distancing from their subjects, *Meerkat Manor* - due to its extended length, soap opera-like narration, romanticization of the animals' lives, and close-up filming techniques - provided a closer, more personal view of the meerkats. Viewers describe being emotionally involved in the animals' lives, sometimes forgetting they are watching a documentary. The meerkats' frequently short lives and brutal deaths become surprising and disturbing to some audiences. This experimental format was seen as expanding the boundaries of both the nature documentary genre and the nature of reality TV. Building on the success of *Meerkat Manor*'s format, Animal Planet commissioned two similarly formatted programs: *Orangutan Island*, which focuses on a group of orphaned orangutans at the Nyara Menteng Orangutan Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, and *Lemur Street*, which looks at the lives of two rival gangs of ring-tailed lemurs in Madagascar.

## Home media

Main article: *Meerkat Manor (videography)*