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PR03 - March 2008
VAPOUR RUB LEADS TO MEERKAT
LOVE…AND A TINY EASTER TREAT TO BOOT
After six years of waiting for the pitter-patter of tiny meerkat feet, a well-known
medicated vapour rub has helped to make Spring come early at Paultons
Park, the family theme park in Hampshire.
Meerkat babies – Ant and Dec – have just made their first outdoor
appearance after four weeks of being inside with their mum. Their arrival is
the result of a tip from a vet which, until this point, had only been used with
guinea pigs.
In a bid to make love blossom, keepers wanted to introduce another male and
female meerkat to the group, but – due to the animals’ territorial nature – the
team at Paultons were puzzled at how best to do this.
However, by using the vet’s tip of putting vapour rub on the animals’ noses
and tails and at key points around their enclosure to make everything smell
the same, nature eventually took its course. Eleven weeks later the baby
meerkats were born, just in time for Easter visitors to catch a glimpse.
But, despite being named after television’s cheeky twosome, keepers at
Paultons Park don’t yet know whether the new additions are boys, girls or a
combination of the two as any human contact with the babies at this stage
would upset the mother-baby bond.
Keeper Jamie Summers says: “We have been hoping for six years that the
meerkats might breed, but it wasn’t until we introduced some new blood, with
the help of a little vapour rub of course, that things really got going. The
arrivals couldn’t have come at a better time as the park is celebrating its 25th
anniversary this year. So all of a sudden it’s birthdays all round.”
-Ends-
280 words
For further information please contact:
Rob Griffiths - Marketing Manager
Paultons Park Limited, Ower, Romsey, Hampshire,
SO51 6AL.
Telephone: 023 8081 4442 Fax: 023 8081 3025
Editors Notes: Paultons Park
is just off exit 2 of the M27, near
Romsey in Hampshire.
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