Told You So, Didn’t We?

Just a few days ago, we posted about the really bad move made by a British man by giving meerkats cameras. Meerkats, too often thought of as "cute" by the easily conned, are actually well known blackmailers and extortionists. Well, they got their cameras and now they have managed to get to the photographer who gave them the equipment AND to the media that reported the story. Now they're all swearing it was a hoax.

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

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 – 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."

Hah. Sure, that's what they're saying now. After the meerkats made them an offer they couldn't refuse, so to speak. Sure, the picture of the meerkat with a canon still camera is a hoax. They were actually making movies. Embarrassing movies that have silenced the press.