St Andrews Aquarium meerkats start the new decade in a new den

With most of us striving to keep the house in check after the Christmas festivities, spare a thought for the team at St Andrews Aquarium who battled against the advent clock to finish off a new enclosure for their family of thirteen meerkats.

The new enclosure, which re-opened this week, has almost doubled in size and comes with the added bonus of 30 metres of tunnels in which the meerkats can now play hide and seek.

John Mace, general manager of St Andrews Aquarium, commented:

“We’re really pleased that we managed to finish the meerkat enclosure just before Christmas – our playful meerkats are very popular with visitors and since they’ve been with us now for almost a decade we felt it was time their home had a bit of a spruce up. We have refreshed the enclosure over the years, but this was a fairly major extension and I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out. The meerkats have been settling in over the last few days while we’ve been enjoying the festive break and seem to very much enjoy their new tunnel system.”

St Andrews Aquarium is open seven days a week in winter from 10am – 5pm, with last entry in winter at 4pm. The Aquarium is closed on New Year’s Day.

To find out more about St Andrews Aquarium www.standrewsaquarium.co.uk