Meerkats photo report was a hoax

[Ian David]

Meerkats photo report was a hoax

By Sally Peck
Last Updated: 1:37am BST 09/09/2007

News of budding photographic talent amongst the UK's meerkat population has been greatly exaggerated.


All was not exactly as it seemed on Meerkat Mountain

According to reports earlier this week, a mob of meerkats turned their paws to photography when Ian Turner, deputy head warden at Longleat Safari Park, in Wiltshire, accidentally left a camera unattended in their enclosure.

Upon his return, Mr Turner was reportedly "stunned" to discover that the meerkats had used the camera to take photographs of each other, and that they were all stored on the camera's digital memory card.

But, while the media - including the Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/07/nmeer107.xml - embraced images of the curious animals, and readers registered their interest (or incredulity) by driving up the articles' clicks online, bloggers and photographers pointed out one small hitch in the story.

The camera the furry photographers were supposedly using to capture family snaps is a Canon EOS 650, a traditional camera that only takes film.

Keith Harris, head warden at Longleat Safari Park, told the Amateur Photographer magazine, which spotted the incongruity: "It started off as a joke. It was a slight hoax. The meerkats didn't take any pictures at all."

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/07/nmeer107.xml

[Ezlivin]

1. Everybody knows that meerkats prefer to use Nikon

N/T

[Fovea]

3. Passe'

Today's Meerkat action shooters prefer the leica m8 9 to 1.
Its size and rugged simplicity coupled to that classic glass matches the fast paced meerkat lifestyle, where the decisive moment may be very decisive indeed.

[MADem]

2. That is the media for ya...facts? We don't need no steeenkin' facts! nt

[hootinholler]

4. I thought cat photos belonged in the lounge.

:shrug:

-Hoot

[vireo]

5. That's just for mere cats

Not meerkats!

[Didereaux]

7. oooooo, you are tempting the mighty, but fickle 'Pun God'!

[Buns_of_Fire]

6. What? No hot 1-on-1 meerkat action?

Jeez. Back to "Meerkat Manor", I guess. *grumble*

[Wilber_Stool]

8. Besides,

this one was too stupid to take off the lens cap.