14 DAY TRIAL // Nearly a month and a half ago, on April 20, Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom welcomed a litter of five utterly adorable meerkat pups.
The young meerkat pups spent their first few weeks of life hidden from curious gazes inside a den and have only recently made their public debut.
According to Zoo Borns, the pups are all healthy and active, and, now that their parents have finally allowed them to leave their den, seem unable to get enough of exploring the great outdoors.
Thus, the young meerkats are often seen chasing each other around and trying to get their parents and the other members of the mob to play with them, the same source details.
Staff at Chester Zoo explains that, most of the time, the pups' parents try to keep their enthusiasm in check. However, they sometimes simply give up and let the young ones do whatever they might want to do.
For the time being, it is unclear which of these meerkat pups are boys and which are girls. However, their caretakers say that, once they get a tad older, this mystery should be easily solved.
Wildlife researchers say that this species inhabits the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, the Namib Desert in Namibia, southwestern Angola and South Africa.
Unlike too many other animals, meerkats are currently considered to be a species of least concern. This means that, at least for now, they are not in danger of going extinct.