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Meerkat lovers first swamped the network with sorrow filled notes after the death of Shakespeare in the first season of Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor. The fans were once again aghast to hear the news that their beloved celebrity 'kat', Flower Whiskers - the queen of South Africa's Kalahari Desert ' had died of a cobra bite. As strong and courageous as she was, Flower was simply not strong enough to live through the attack and succumbed to her injuries. Although the episode only screened in September, in reality Flower died in February this year.
The heart wrenching episode entitled "A Journey's End," featured the events leading up to Flower's untimely death after yet another Meerkat struggle for survival in the African Desert. For four years she was leader of one of the largest, most close-knit families on the Manor. Flower and her partner Zaphod, ran one of the most successful mobs in the Kalahari. Flower was the dominant female of the Meerkat group called 'the Whiskers'. Having come into existence in 1998, the Whiskers mob is at the heart of Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor. They are a family of Meerkats struggling to survive in Africa's Kalahari Desert. Flower led the Whiskers through wars while viewers got to admire an intelligent leader, valiant warrior and generous mother. For two years they watched as she defended and raised her family of heroes.
The daily goings-on at the so-called Manor may read like a page from any prime-time soapy, filled with jealous exes, sibling rivalry, down 'n dirty (meer)kat fights, pregnant daughters getting kicked out of the house and a lot of paring off. But these furry stars of Meerkat Manor don't follow any script, they write it as they go along, assisted by a group of researchers from the Kalahari Meerkat Project, whose specially built fiber-optic cameras capture the true slice of life that just happens to be taking place, at times, in a burrow in the Kalahari Desert under the wide African skies.
These small masked mammals live and thrive in one of the hottest and driest places on earth and beloved Meerkat fans can meet these precious and highly social creatures by visiting the malaria free Kalahari Desert in South Africa. Together with a group of biologists that are investigating the cooperative behaviour of the Meerkat - and who have habituated ten separate groups of Meerkats - these highly engaging creatures can be observed from only few feet away.
The reserve provides fans with the ultimate safari experience as they are introduced to the energetic daily social lifestyle of the Desert Meerkats, right where the ever popular Meerkat Manor is filmed. Meerkat Manor's pioneering methods of filming have allowed the opportunity for the Kalahari Project scientists to uncover aspects of Meerkat life never before seen. While many other documentaries maintain a certain degree of emotional distance from the subjects that are being filmed, the extended soap-opera-like Meerkat Manor and the close-up filming techniques of the show, brings nature lovers so close to the animals they get more emotionally involved in the lives of the Meerkats, sometimes forgetting that they are watching a documentary. Only to be ruthlessly reminded that Meerkats frequently live a very short existence and often have very brutal deaths.
South Africa's Kalahari Desert is planning to air a commemorative spot, a tribute to Flower online and at a press event in New York. The upcoming feature film "Queen of the Kalahari," starring Flower, continues in production and is set to hit the American theatres in December 2007. The production blends the animal documentary with dramatic narration by Bill Nighy who unfolds the story of the Kalahari Desert's infamous Whiskers family.
A trip to the Kalahari commemorates the Desert's favourite rose, Flower, as travelers pay tribute to her memory at the roots of her existence. She may be gone, but she is certainly not forgotten.
