wow, drhazeem! very impressive seniority on the forum. i believe this would be the view of most on this forum, but ofcourse i would still watch. meerkats are facinating, it just so happens that the show first introduced us to the whiskers. they are presented as "the good guys". all good, they (the show's producers) chose them because of their success and because of the courage of their leader, flower.
fortunatley, many of the kmp groups have dominant members that are of whiskers heritage, which would make it an easy transition. but don't count out the whiskers just yet! ella seems to be the ideal df to lead their return to prominance. i say this mostly because she seems to be quite fertile to say the least. but if she doesn't, at least flower and zaphod and yossarian's decendents are very well spoken for throughout the reserve.
I reckon whiskers will be ok. I didnt at first at all but with an unrelated df and dm now and given the recent 'explosion' of pups on the sept lh i think whiskers will multiply like the other groups are... if juno is about as big as thundercat at 5 months (thundercat is 3and1/2) i wonder just how big he will get! Whiskers will be the ancestor of many future groups i think. Im wondering how many more new groups will appear... these days it seems if your an evicted female theres little point getting back into mums good books... just wait around for 10 or 15 minuites and some wild roving males will appear and you can start your own group and go straight to df position without waiting in the pecking order. I want to see if machu picchu, axel, bruce and the other rover-holics settle down someplace.
Drhazeem, bite your tongue!! (just kidding). I am confident the Whiskers will make it.
If they didnt, it would be interesting to see another group like the Kung Fu, Baobab or Toyota. ?I would prefer featuring a "new" group as opposed to a current one (ie Commandos, Lazuli, etc) as we already have seen them and MM has established personas for them. The Whiskers are my favorite, but the life and society of the meerkats is fascinating.
I would like to see the Whiskers, and other groups (including those with Whiskers members).
Juno, judging from a video, was not much smaller (for a very young male) than Thundercat, but not about as big though. He can become a large adult male.
You know, I have heard Ella is also a big female and Nugget is rather large as well. The Whiskers may become a group of very large individuals (espeically with a big male and female mating). That may compensate for a weakness in numbers. They could beat out groups with superior numbers. I wonder how many pups Ella has had since Season 4?
The oldest, and biggest female normally becomes the DF in a group. She can grow bigger during her tenure. This is an advantage of being a DF. And a longer life expectancy.
I reckon the Whiskers will be ok. I mean it could be a while till MM starts to air again. And there is plenty of time for the entire Kalahari including the Whiskers to rebuild their groups and survive the winter. I believe they'll all be ok.
ok guys/gals.... i'm bored and its going to be at least a week until we get any real new info (namely the september kmp report), so i pose this question: who is drhazeem???? it seems to me that his "joined date" pre-dates the 1st episode of the 1st season. he/she is a "member" which means he (or she) has posted very little in over 4 years on the forum.
what i'm getting at, is maybe (and i'm not big into this kinda thing, but like i said, i'm bored) drhazeem could be someone from AP or OSF trying to figure out if meerkat manor could continue if the most tragic event does occur (namely the demise of the whiskers)? i mentioned it on my prior reply, but it is weird about the good doctor's "joined date" of 01/04. what do you all think???????
thats an interesting idea, but im not going to say anything that way i cant be 'quoted' on things that i never said (its happened before)
back to whiskers.. i started up a thread once with the concern that they could become a lost group based on out-of-date information and censered lh reports, but im not really too worried about them now.. theres an unrelated (which is anything except brother and sister in the kalahari it seems) dm and df and a reasonable amount of other kats in the group to help out.. we can see on the sept lh report the groups are rebuilding well, small groups like 'kung-fu' a group which it seemed like once upon a time was abandoned by every resident male is now a stable group with a bright future, everyones having pups now it seems and given ellas 'premiscuous' track record as a sf i think as a df ella will have been busy with thundercat and pups will be on the rise at the new look whiskers. the dominant pair are not alone either, theres a few females to help out plus nugget and juno balance the male side out a little, it wil be a while before they start roving id imagine by which time whiskers will have grown substantially.. juno being very large will make a good babysitter and be handy in battles. some may say 'what if' ella or thundercat suddenly suffered at the hands of fate, but dosent that stand for every group?
The joined date could be for the general Discovery Forums site. I've noticed that the moderators' joining dates predate the MM Forum creation dates (eg. Mod Kelly). So, you could be right.
i cant resist, ive made an observation.. when i (and many others) start a thread, we read and comment on each others posts... look at this one. notice a difference?
I cannot imagine the Manor without the Whiskers. I hope that Ella has many healthy litters in her future. It will also be nice when the other females are old enough to produce pups.
new manor fan, with that in mind for the future.. there could be more sf's founding there own groups yet.. with all the wild males and all the roving, its just a matter of time before ella will have to make some evictions.
Right now its spring in the Kalahari and after a mild winter, Ella, will have her shot at expanding her group's numbers. Unfortunately there are no cameras filming and we may miss the rise of the Whiskers again.
Whatever happens Flower's legacy continues. Zaphod is still keeping watch at the Aztecs. Mozart's boy is trying to stay on top at the Lazuli and Zorilla as ever is running a tight ship at Commandos.
We will miss the rise of the Whiskers. AP is very shortsighted...
As Kimaire mentioned (she visited the KMP in July, and early August) Ella gave birth (some of the pups died, I guess) the night of 28/29 of July. She was babysitting a few days after, when the group was foraging.
I have the utmost confidence that the Whiskers will make it, but I will miss seeing them grow and flourish. Next season, which will be awhile, I know, I would like to see the other groups, even if they aren't neighbors/rivals. AP could dedicate a few shows to the other groups and make the season a little longer too. Did I read in another thread that Zorilla took the Commandos far away? AP should show more of them, for I love watching Zorilla in action.
I know this is late. However, while the Whiskers were on the brink of death at one point (I believe only had 5 to 7 members) the most current count is 27! Yes, there was a baby explosion. I believe this is the reason the whiskers are so adored. They have a high thresh hold for difficult times and seem to pull through. Again, another question, how long do you think the whiskers will be around? I have heard it is not uncommon for groups to have their time, and then dwindle to nothing.. While it is very sad it does happen.
The Whiskers could not have 27 members unless an enormous roving coalition joined and chased Thundercat away, at the same time as a large litter being born, and only the researchers could know that. At last count (the July LH) Whiskers had 15 members including the three absent, evicted roving males. It is questionable if they will be allowed to return, as Thundercat has been attacking them for two months in a row. Ella was not yet clearly pregnant in July, but probably was in August. She may have given birth by now, but I wouldn't expect there would be a count of pups, unless there had been a burrow move already.
The Whiskers splinter Baobab has 27 members. They are the largest group in the study right now.
Whiskers have been very successful so far. It is not uncommon for groups to die out entirely, and there is a fairly high turnover in groups as the study defines them. Usually TB is a major factor.
It seems pretty clear that the Whiskers legacy will live on, no matter what happens to the group we call Whiskers. As I mentioned in an earlier post there are now about 100 meerkats in the population descended from Flower in some way, in different several groups. There are others who can trace their ancestry to her cousin Risca, who was another famous Whiskers- born dominant, and the mother of Zorilla/Nikita and Kleintjie/Rosie.
The Whiskers splinter Baobab has 27 members. They are the largest group in the study right now.
What about the Aztecs; how large is their group now? And who leads the Baobab? Oh, woe is me, I miss the weekly updates that S-5 would provide - (sob). m.j.
The Whiskers splinter Baobab has 27 members. They are the largest group in the study right now.
My first message is 'under review' because of a trigger word, but I don't know what it was. I was asking how many are in the Aztecs now, and also who is leading Baobab - who split to form them? I'm hopelessly lost and I miss not having a S-5 so very much; nothing else gives us weekly updates on our beloved Kats. m.j.
Aztecs have 17 members as of July. Monkulus/Maybelline and Zaphod are still the dominant pair.
Strictly speaking Baobab aren't a splinter, but a group formed by evictees. I'm sorry if I was being confusing. They were founded in late 2007 by four Whiskers females evicted by Rocket Dog: Hawkeye (aka Rocky) and her littermate Cruise, who were the first pups we saw on MM: Mitch's female littermates were the oldest and traded dominance, though Hawkeye seems to be the clear dominant now. Both are still with the group and each has raised a few litters, which is why the group grew so fast! The two other founders were Petra and Cheetara (Millie or Shellie, I can never remember which was which). Both were evicted alone and disappeared; they were probably killed by predators.
There were three founding Baobab males, all of whom were unhabituated. One (Al Pacino) is apparently very old and may be a Zaphod-type character leading a roving coalition of his sons. But unlike Zaphod he recently lost his dominance to one of the younger males, Al Capone. The third is Al Catraz. All of them are still with the group.
In my last post I meant to say that Hawkeye and Cruise are Mitch's littermates and among the first pups we saw on the show. Petra was born in Flower's second S1 litter, and Cheetara in Flower's last S2 litter. All of them became pregnant at the same time as Rocket, and she kicked them out.
Three of the founding Aztecs females were evicted by Monkulus/Maybelline around the same time and founded the Van Helsing group. Flo, (who was in the Columbus litter but I never remember her MM name; she also played Daisy sometimes in S3) became dominant there. Billy/Chutney/Angie? and Bananas/Athena were with her. Billy is still with the group but Bananas disappeared after being evicted. All three females had successful litters though, so Bananas did leave a small legacy.
Other Whiskers we know from MM and their offspring are now members of Toyota, Kung Fu, and Lazuli.
Out of the 15 current study groups, 7 have a Whiskers born Dominant, that's impressive given that's practically half of the groups. JaXX - the group with no DM only has to allow frequent rover 'Rhogan Josh' to join or the Whiskers roving coalation lead by 'Nugget' to find them and then it's official - Whiskers run most of the Kalahari! So as Vwf053 said, even if Whiskers itself did die out the legacy will certainly live on.
Whiskers like Lazuli, is a very strong group.. Many are worried about the lack of adult males (thanks to Thundercat) at the minuite but Ella had it much harder as the only adult leading a group of 7 the other year.. they survived this and will survive again i think. Yes TB could enter the group and wipe them out but sadly that will happen if it happens as we are currently seeing with other groups and we did in 2007 too. Lazuli has demonstrated its strength by surviving TB endemic's in the past.. now that it has a Whiskers DM and Whiskers has a Lazuli DM I think each group will get stronger.
Pronker mentioned the 'public' gallery will probably be updated soon so the picture we saw in the friends burrow of the Baobab males should be in there to see.
Thanks for the updates; I'm having a hard time keeping things straight. I miss not having GenieBelle's family tree available; has she joined the Burrow on Facebook, does anyone know? I'm re-reading Prof. Tim's book off and on; oh, if we just had another book that updated the lives of our Kats ... (sigh). Better yet, another Season of MM!!! m.j.
Good point Scmeerkatfan, I wonder if there will be a second book? Zaphod deserves to have one (although hopefully he won't have one for a while) the 'Shakespeare movie' was axed which is a shame.. I do think a book would be nice in the absence of the TV show.
In re-reading the above posts, it seems sadly ironic that so many evicted females were able to start groups that are thriving; yet, our 'caring one' Mozart wasn't successful. She so deserved it, yet it was always just out of reach. m.j. (sob, sob)
I feel like I need to dig up some material on all of these different family trees and create one large blueprint of the Kalahari. Keeping track of all of this information is difficult for everyone!
I could actually create Kalahari family tree posters. However, they would take a ton of time. I wouldn't mind selling them. (the money would be for the materials and the work) However, they would probably be around $100-$150 because it really would take probably 24-48 hours to create a really good one, not to mention track down all of the information. It would be a fun project though.
I also loved Mozart, and I get a lot of satisfaction that Wollow is an aggressive DM. I feel like he is doing so much that our sweet Mozart couldn't bring herself to do. In way, it's ironic. Long live Wollow!
