Mysterious feline creatures

Press, 15 July 1987, Page 19

Mysterious feline creatures

The cats on tonight’s “Our World” are a far cry from the standard domestic moggie. The first item investigates the claims of “big cat” sightings in England over the past 20 years, and goes “On the Trail of the Big Cat” in Scotland.

Sheep and deer have been slaughtered by mysterious large feline creatures which have been glimpsed by responsible witnesses. The "Surrey Slinker” was almost certainly an escaped puma, as this programme shows.

Judith Hann and her team have a big surprise for sceptics ... they set out to capture the Moray Big Cat in Scotland. The second item is not

merely about cats, but about Meerkats. “Meerkats United” is a David Attenborough-narrated inspection of the Meerkat clan; kats which aren’t cats at all, but in fact, small mongoose.

This is the remarkable story of the Meerkat community, which survives in the hostile landscape of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa.

Zoologist David MacDonald of Oxford University followed one particular group of meerkats for six months. By the time cameraman Richard Goss joined him, they were both accepted as harmless. For nearly a year, the photographer followed his new family in the nightmarish desert conditions. The scorching temperatures melted film em-

ulsion and wind blew sand into the camera.

He stayed with the team as they hunted and were hunted. He was there when babies were born, and often his problem was not to get close to the animals but to distance himself; both camera and cameraman became useful vantage points for the tiny meerkat guards, in an otherwise flat and barren landscape.

We see them take on all comers, from snakes, scorpions, jackals and their number one adversary, another team of meerkats. And we come to understand that the secret of the meerkat survival lies in their extraordinary teamwork.

“Our World” screens on One at 7.30 tonight.