After a 10-year absence, a mob of eight meerkats will return to the Woodland Park Zoo this spring as part of the revamped Adaptations Building, which opens May 1.

Meerkats belong to the mongoose family and dwell in the savannas and grasslands of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Angola.

The most social of the mongooses, meerkats live in packs of up to 30 individuals in the wild.

Meerkats will use their claws to dig underground burrows but spend much of the day outside foraging, babysitting, grooming and playing while a sentry keeps an eye out for danger.

Visitors will get an inside look at the animals’ semi-arid savanna habitat and observe as meerkats scamper into their tunnels, nurse their young or stand at attention atop the naturalistic outcroppings, behaving as sentinels.

A glimpse into a log den will create visual depth and give visitors a peek at life inside meerkat burrows, which serve as nesting and nursery rooms.

The public will be able to see the swiftness of these carnivores with daily bug feedings and learn about their social habits with keeper talks on Saturdays and Sundays during the zoo’s summer season.

A number of species from the zoo’s former Night Exhibit will also make their debut in summer 2010 alongside the meerkats in newly renovated exhibit spaces within the Adaptations Building.

A colony of Rodrigues fruit bats will be coupled with the springhaas, an African rodent. The two-toed sloths, slow and deliberate tree climbers, will be paired with the semi-arboreal tamanduas (anteaters) in the adjacent exhibit.

The $150,000 meerkat project designed by Woodland Park Zoo staff will open to the public with festivities on May 1.

The zoo's all-new West Entrance will be opening the same day.