While shooting meerkats may seem like an easy task, with the comfortable nature of those animals this would probably be true. Here is the thing though, meerkats are just too cute. So cute, in fact, that photographer Will Burrard-Lucas found himself torn between completing his photographic assignment and being commandeered by the meerkats as a human lookout post.
Will explains that while meerkats are wild animals, they have grown accustomed to the presence of humans and no longer consider them a threat. On top of that Will spent some time with the meerkats which allowed them to get to know him and feel pretty comfortable with him and his gear being around. How comfortable? stand-on-your-camera-while-you-are-shooting-comfortable.
these clever little creatures take full advantage of the situation and will sometimes climb on top of the nearest person for a better view out over the long grass. Sometimes they just decide that sitting on a warm human is more comfortable that sitting on the coarse sand!
This short two minutes BTS videos form Will explains it all:
But if you thought shooting adult meerkats was cute, Will also had the pleasure of being a godfather to a new generation of meerkats whom he followed from birth to the age of three weeks:
One of the highlights of my time in Botswana was getting to spend time with some adorable three-week-old baby meerkats. These tiny babies first emerged from the den a day or so into my trip and after that I spent a lot of time with them so they became very comfortable around me. In fact, it wasn’t long before they were treating me like their own personal plaything!
You can read more about Will’s meerkats adventures on his blog post covering the meerkats assignment and generally read about his (pretty incredible) wildlife photography on his (awesomely free) ebook. If you want a closer follow up you can follow Will’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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