Senior Member
Registered: 02-05-09
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Last month, a very special meerkat was lost. She was never seen on Meerkat Manor, although she was featured in "Nigel Marvin's Meerkat Adventure" under the stage name of Greedy. She was one of the most beloved meerkats in the Kalahari Meerkat Project, and the head of a beautiful, often exceptional, family.
Her name was Grumpy. She was born on January 21, 2000, to Ziziphus and Belgarion Lazuli-- the founding dominant pair of that group. She was part of a huge litter of seven, who were named after the seven dwarves. Grumpy was evicted early in life, in the company of her littermate Sleepy. They teamed up with a pair of males from the Drie Doring group, Burgan and Cassia. Together, they started a group called Moomins. Grumpy and Burgan assumed dominance, and led together for many years. Moomins were a favorite group of many visitors to the KMP: Grumpy was highly tolerant of people, and often graced them by doing sentry duty (a rare behavior for a dominant female) on their head. Her family were playful, and life in their isolated territory was peaceful. But you didn't mess with Grumpy during weights sessions-- all the meerkats are trained to jump into scales to be weighed for a tiny crumb of egg. Grumpy was a big fan of egg, which earned her a new name-- Pig.
In 2005, Grumpy had a very unusual pup. Fluffernutter, the meerkat born without claws. The researchers did not expect him to survive past three months, when he would have to feed himself. His lack of claws was a major disability while digging, but Fluff found he did not need to dig. His family continued feeding him. When they did not, he could often steal a meal, or even hunt on the surface. He survived this way for years before dispersing with several of his brothers and sisters in 2007. And this permanent group split is not the only sudden change in Grumpy's life that year: her mate of many years Burgan was killed by a predator, and a new group of males joins the family.
The old Pig could be highly aggressive with subordinates-- evictions were frequent and some litters were lost. But she could also be very kind. Grumpy first showed an exceptional behavior when she did not permanently evict her niece Little My. Little My was evicted often, but allowed to return, again and again, until she was over five years old. Few subordinate females ever remain in groups past the age of three. Grumpy repeated this with several of her own daughters. This would come back to haunt her, as the aging Grumpy could not compete with her large, older daughters. She began losing litters to them, but still did not evict them permanently. For over two years, she raised no pups. In early 2009, it becomes clear that aging Grumpy is losing her grip on the group as her oldest daughter Hemulen begins to evict other females, and lead the group in her mother's place. But she still submits to Grumpy. Finally in April 2009 Grumpy has a new litter-- six healthy pups born at the age of nine! But at the same time, she begins to show signs of lesions on her face, and weight loss. Hemulen overthrows her and assumes dominance, but is not observed evicting her mother. Grumpy's pups survive the chaos. But only a few months later in June 2009, Grumpy disappears from the group. She was showing signs of advanced tuberculosis infection. Her body is found shortly after.
At the time of her death, Grumpy was the oldest female meerkat in the population. She was one of the oldest recorded. Her legacy lives on now in the group she built, the Moomins.
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