A family of meerkats, one of Africa’s most entertaining species, burrows into visitors’ hearts in this new special exhibit at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.

First popularized by the comical sidekick Timon in Disney’s “The Lion King,” and then celebrated in the Animal Planet television series “Meerkat Manor” (2005-2009), meerkats are members of the mongoose family that live in social “mobs” or “gangs” of up to 30 members in burrows in the Kalahari Desert, in the southern African nations of Botswana and South Africa.

“These are active animals with very charismatic faces and highly interesting social structures, so they’ll be a lot of fun for visitors to watch,” said Jack Schneider, the Aquarium’s curator of animals.

No mere cats, meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are fascinating for living in structured but cooperative societies, including a foraging strategy where adults take turns standing guard upright on their hind feet, watching for predators, while the others eat. As the popular “Meerkat Manor” television series showed, the family-based “mobs” are not lacking in daily drama – from internal relationship issues to battles with other “mobs” encroaching on their territory to the ever-present fear of jackals and eagles.

The exhibit features six sibling meerkats – three males, three females – born in the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Their exhibit offers the meerkats lots of opportunities for climbing, digging and exploring, with several feeding locations to keep them always on the alert for incoming crickets. And a viewing bubble lets visitors pop up right among the meerkats.

It’s made possible by Bank of America and Fifth Street Capital.

Almost like a good television sit-com generates new hit shows, the meerkat exhibit is the second big “spin-off” from The Maritime Aquarium’s major special exhibit, “Africa: From the Desert to the Sea.”  The first – “African Penguins,” featuring a small colony of the comical birds native to South Africa – opened in February 2009 and helped the Aquarium to one of its biggest summers ever.  “African Penguins” will be open through December 2010.

“We believe that the new ‘Meerkats’ exhibit, combined with ‘African Penguins’ and “Africa: From the Desert to the Sea,’ provide an excellent bonus value for Maritime Aquarium visitors right now, especially when you consider that all three are included with general admission,” said Chris Loynd, the Aquarium’s marketing director. “At no time in our history have you been able to enjoy this amount of additional and excellent live-animal presentations … and there’s no additional cost!”