MEERKATS ENJOY PEA ICE CUBES IN THE HEATWAVE

With temperatures in London Thursday (25 JULY 2019) breaking records as the hottest July on record – animals at ZSL London Zoo are doing their best to stay cool.

Meerkats, who are originally from southern Africa's Kalahari Desert, have been lying on their bellies in the shade to keep cool. It helps that they have inbuilt sunglasses as the dark circles around their eyes help them to deal with the sun.

They soon jumped up and got moving when a keeper provided some icy treats for them – peas frozen in heart shaped ice cubes.

There are seven meerkats at ZSL London Zoo at the moment, 3 females and 4 males - with the biggest one called Dracula.

But two more meerkats will be on display at the new children's zoo, called Animal Adventure from next Wednesday. They are welcoming two brothers (named Liam and Roo) into shared living quarters with three friendly porcupines (Lena, Polly and Nancy).

London, 25 July 2019

1. Various of meerkats in the shade

2. Close of meerkat in the sun

3. Close of meerkat sign by enclosure

4. Wide of zookeeper bringing in ice treats

5. Various of zookeeper putting down ice treats

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Veronica Heldt, zookeeper:

"Yeah, it kind of has two purposes. So one is a bit of enrichment, so it keeps them busy trying just to keep them cool in this hot weather we've got. Yeah they do like to sunbathe. I think this is a is a little bit too much for them now."

7. Zoom in meerkat eating ice treat

8. Various shots meerkats eating ice treat

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Veronica Heldt, zookeeper:

"Yes these guys are from the Kalahari Desert so they are used to fairly high temperatures but when it does get a little bit too hot they do lie on their stomachs in the shade to try and keep cool. But they do have a great adaptation of a inbuilt pair of sunglasses. They've got dark circles around their eyes which helps a lot on bright sunny days."

10. Zoom in meerkat eating treat out of ice cube tray

11. Wide shot meerkats

12. Close-up meerkat with ice treat

13. Wide shot meerkat on log

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Veronica Heldt, zookeeper:

"So we've got seven in this group here. So they do live in fairly big family groups. So the biggest one in this group here is called Dracula. So you can tell him apart from all the others. And then we do have two other merekats called Liam and Roo and they are going to actually be moving in with our porcupines ready for our new Animal Adventures children's area to be open."

15. Medium shot meerkat with ice treat

16. Various wide shots meerkats on log

17. Medium shot meerkat playing with ice cube tray

18. Zoom in meerkat on log