Meerkats in the news...

There's dissent in the ranks. There's rivalry for the leadership position. So begins the fourth season of TV's most unlikely reality show, "Meerkat Manor," which finds the Whiskers clan in disarray after the death last season of its matriarch, Flower. "Meerkat Manor: The Next Generation" premieres the first of its 13 episodes on Animal Planet at 9 p.m. Friday. Stockard Channing is the series' new narrator. ((Seattle Times))
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Despite Flower's passing, ''Meerkat Manor'' will continue. Season four, now titled ''Meerkat Manor: The Next Generation,'' premieres June 6. Stockard Channing replaces Sean Astin as the series' narrator. "You'll find they have a different feel with a woman's point of view," the show's senior executiuve is quotes in the Chicago Sun Times.
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((Los Angeles Times))
The film, ("Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins") according to a press release, "tells the story of Flower before she became the Manor's famous first lady." The movie, which debuted at this year's Tribeca Film Festival (!), "traces the transformation of Flower from a young, inexperienced meerkat into a remarkable leader who puts her family above all in the fight for survival in one of the harshest deserts on the planet."
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((Star Ledger))
Filmed over seven months, it follows the Whiskers clan on the Kalahari. Forced out of their family homestead, if burrows can be considered as such, they try to eke out an existence on a harsher piece of land. From early on, Flower exhibits the traits of a leader, staying with her sister as she's dying, not backing down when other meerkats attack. When a cobra lashes out at the foot-high animals, it's Flower who takes it on, eventually nibbling its tail. It's one of those stories in which you know the ending before it starts, but it's still worth watching.
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From Animal Planet... the owners of all Meerkat rights (we are just fans)
Meerkat Manor's favorite first family, the Whiskers, was dealt a harsh blow last season with the death of their fearless matriarch, Flower. With the family in shambles, Rocket Dog fought her way to the spot as top "kat" and new leader for the Whiskers clan. But mutineer Maybelline didn't accept her sister as queen and ditched the clan to form her own mob, the Aztecs. With the family divided, the sisters' claws come out — and the Manor is changed forever.
Now, Rocket Dog and Maybelline must live within the rather large shadow of their late mother, Flower, and there's very little room in the Kalahari for both sisters' clans. Not only do the meerkats face predators, harsh desert weather and their archenemies, the Commandos, but they also most deal with dissent within their ranks. Without a solid leader to unify them, they face their toughest survival threat yet: each other.
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