A meerkat mob died after tunnels collapsed during sudden heavy rain at Tropical Birdland in Desford, Leicestershire. One meerkat was rescued on Monday, and staff are spending time with the survivor to comfort and monitor it closely.
Big Mama and one litter
The attraction said the group had been digging out a fresh underground chamber before the collapse. The matriarch, Big Mama, was expecting her next litter, adding to the loss suffered when the tunnel system gave way.
Tropical Birdland said prolonged hot and dry weather had left the ground ideal for digging. Heavy rain then compromised the structure of the tunnels and brought them down, turning conditions that had helped the meerkats burrow into the factor that destroyed the network.
Tropical Birdland on Monday
On Monday, Tropical Birdland said one meerkat had been rescued and the rest of the mob had died. The centre did not say how many meerkats were in the group before the collapse, but its account makes clear that the loss extended beyond the survivor found after the rain.
A spokesperson for the wildlife attraction said: “This has been an incredibly distressing and heartbreaking time for all the team”. The statement captures the scale of the incident for staff now caring for the lone surviving meerkat while the rest of the group is gone.
The practical next step is simple: the surviving animal remains under close watch, and the attraction is the only place with first-hand knowledge of how the collapse unfolded inside the enclosure. For readers who visited Tropical Birdland in Desford, the key change is that the meerkat group there has been reduced to one animal.
Big Mama’s planned litter never came, and the tunnel system that was supposed to support it failed in sudden rain. That leaves one meerkat alive, one enclosure changed, and one basic question unanswered: how large the mob was before the collapse.
