'Mazing Meerkats - 13th Feb 2009

Some interesting facts about these gorgeous little animals - called the Meerkat.

* Meerkats only live in Southern Africa

* They are very social animals and live in family groups of up to 40

* Who are their enemies? The jackal, the serval and the eagle - to name a few!

This little guy is acting as the sentry and keeping a watchful eye out for any stray jackals!

Our first game was similar to "North, South, East and West" with all 'meerkats' running around and on the blow of the whistle all meerkats had to run to their burrow. Each Six had a specifically allocated burrow.

Safe home!

Yellow Six taking a rest in their burrow!

Getting ready for Leopard Instruction!

Taking in the Lion Instruction!

And our Cheetahs doing some sense training.

Our New Chum learning all about the Grand Howl, Promise, Law and Hand-shake!

...and once all our meerkats had done their learning for the day, it was time to play....

Meerkats were scratching all over for bugs!

A relay game with sour worms on paper plates in front of each Six. On go, 1 meerkat races up and using no hands, has to pick up a worm and race back to his Six and the next meerkat has a turn. Continue until all worms have been eaten!

Keith Westergaard, Assistant District Commissioner Voyageur District, Bay-Lakes Council, BSA suggested that I should perhaps video some of the games. Well, I am not too clued up on doing a video with my camera but I tried .... and you can see the result at the end of this blog....... being not too au fait with this, I am not sure why it posted it at the bottom and not right here where I needed it!

Nevertheless go and take a look!

Take a look at this snazzy meerkat!

Each cub had to draw in what their meerkat was having for lunch!

Well, we had bugs a plenty, scorpions and some other very interesting creatures!

Mmmm..... wonder what is for lunch today..

We played a Kim's Game whereby I made up a story about the meerkats living in the Karoo. Mommy Meerkat had to go shopping and accidently her million kids knocked the hand bag off the table. As each meerkat put an item back into Mommy Meerkat's handbag they had to remember what it was!

Some of the items were:

Bright Red Lipsick to make Mommy Meerkat look marvelous

Keys for the Meerkat Mobile

Tissue to wipe away a tear

Money for a trip to Hawaii

Battery for Mommy's ipod

and a few other items...

On to our next game and this was a circle game with Akela naming cubs as Meerkats, Scorpions and Eagles. When the Meerkats were called, they had to run around the circle and back to their spot and into the middle to grab a sweet.
Next the Eagles went and then the Scorpions and so on and until time is up.

It was a very special day as we invested 2 new chums.

Invested and saluting the pack.

The Sixer of Yellow Six welcoming the new chum into her Six.

And then it was time to invest another New Chum!

And here is the Sixer of Green Six telling him all about the 'greatness' of Green Six..

Saluting the Pack.

The Video of the Meerkats collecting their Worms!

Let me know what you think - would you like to see more videos?

Next week we will be having our District Pirate Camp - so there will be great photos to show you all!

Till Next Time

Keep Cubbing

Akela Joy