PHILADELPHIA (AP) — All five meerkats at the Philadelphia Zoo died suddenly this month, and the apparent cause was accidental poisoning, linked to an agricultural dye used to mark the animals, officials said. No official cause has been determined yet, as an investigation into the deaths is not yet complete.
“We are working with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the USDA in order to do a deep fact-finding process on this so that we can definitively understand what really was definitively the cause of the meerkats’ death,” said Amy Shearer, chief marketing, communications and experience officer at the Philadelphia Zoo. “That can take weeks or months, and so we are still in a place where we don’t definitively know what has happened.”
Shearer says the zookeeper staff are devastated. The meerkats — named Nkosi, Lula, Nya, Kgala, and Ari — came to the zoo as a group of siblings about a decade ago.
“Often our keepers are closer to their animals sometimes — spend more time with them, certainly — than they do with their own families, at times,” Shearer said.
Meerkats are gregarious and are known for their playfulness and communal living style.
Zoo officials use dye to mark the animals as a way to differentiate them as individuals, according to Rachel Metz, the zoo’s vice president of animal well-being. She said the zoo has been using the same dye for more than three decades without incident.
The dye was used on the meerkats June 1, and one of them was found dead about 30 minutes later, officials said. The four others started showing signs of acute illness minutes later, so veterinary staff anesthetized them and pumped their stomachs. But three of the meerkats then died within 36 hours. The last one died Monday night after being under medical supervision for more than a week.
“The outpouring of support, I can tell you, has been very helpful and supporting to the organization,” said Shearer.
A detailed investigation is underway as officials await necropsy results. The zoo says there have been no discussions yet about the next phase of the Meerkat Maze exhibit.
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