"I've been lucky enough to film with elephants, gorillas, bears and none of them have ever sat on my head."
May 24, 2012 7:12 AM Subscribe
Magic Meerkat Moments: In this clip from BBC's Planet Earth Live, we get to see meerkats, which have become so acclimated to film crews that they now view them as part of the landscape and use them for shade and as vantage points. [via]
I understand Kim Kardashian is doing the same thing now with the paparrazzi.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:25 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:25 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
The best parts of Planet Earth are the 'making of' segments afterwards.
posted by fatbird at 7:26 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by fatbird at 7:26 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Dear MetaFilter:
I honestly like my slightly dull, deskbound job. Please stop making me hate it.
xoxo
Bellman.
posted by The Bellman at 7:36 AM on May 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
I honestly like my slightly dull, deskbound job. Please stop making me hate it.
xoxo
Bellman.
posted by The Bellman at 7:36 AM on May 24, 2012 [4 favorites]
I was watching, waiting, wondering if that meerkat was going to johnnycarson all over that guy's head...
posted by heyho at 7:36 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by heyho at 7:36 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
Meeerkats? Can't think of the wonderful little beasts without thinking of the late great Hans Reichel's webpage, where you can, well, play with 'em. Just spend a few minutes there, figure it out, and I guarantee a fun time!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:40 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:40 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
This is awful! Now meerkats will have no fear of poachers who gather meerkat hides to make thin patched-together fur coats.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:41 AM on May 24, 2012
posted by shakespeherian at 7:41 AM on May 24, 2012
They've replaced Sir David Attenborough with Richard Hammond for the voice-overs? Eww.
posted by thecjm at 7:44 AM on May 24, 2012
posted by thecjm at 7:44 AM on May 24, 2012
They've replaced Sir David Attenborough with Richard Hammond for the voice-overs?
Hamster Seeks Meerkat.
posted by maudlin at 7:48 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
Hamster Seeks Meerkat.
posted by maudlin at 7:48 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
Heyho, I swear I was watching when that Carson moment happened. Though I'm likely wrong. I totally agree with fatbird. I find the 'making of' segments to be crazy involving.
posted by asavage at 7:58 AM on May 24, 2012
posted by asavage at 7:58 AM on May 24, 2012
Eh, I'm not impressed. They just meer kats.
posted by Snyder at 8:08 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Snyder at 8:08 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
You know the meerkat that is atop the standing photographer is totally thinking "TALLEST! MEERKAT EVAR!!! I WIN."
posted by teleri025 at 8:08 AM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by teleri025 at 8:08 AM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
Won't someone think of the photographers? One minute they're these enormous creatures that must be feared and avoided, next minute they're just part of the scenery. That's got to be tough on their self esteem.
posted by tommasz at 8:21 AM on May 24, 2012
posted by tommasz at 8:21 AM on May 24, 2012
Yes but on the other hand they have tiny baby meerkats on their heads. EVERYONE WINS.
posted by elizardbits at 8:23 AM on May 24, 2012 [8 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 8:23 AM on May 24, 2012 [8 favorites]
Well, I fucked up my pun, so I'll just say thanks for the entertaining link.
posted by Snyder at 8:24 AM on May 24, 2012
posted by Snyder at 8:24 AM on May 24, 2012
One thing lacking from this video is the lack of discussion of the diversity in the meerkat population.
Surely they realise viewers want to compare the meerkats?
posted by Talkie Toaster at 8:54 AM on May 24, 2012
Surely they realise viewers want to compare the meerkats?
posted by Talkie Toaster at 8:54 AM on May 24, 2012
Suck it, honey badger. This is what not giving a shit really looks like.
posted by klarck at 8:56 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by klarck at 8:56 AM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]
They've replaced Sir David Attenborough with Richard Hammond for the voice-overs?
This is from Planet Earth (spuriously) Live, which is not a David Attenborough joint.
posted by phl at 9:00 AM on May 24, 2012
This is from Planet Earth (spuriously) Live, which is not a David Attenborough joint.
posted by phl at 9:00 AM on May 24, 2012
Well, I sure hope the meerkats inherit the earth after the apocalypse of mankind. What an adorable planet it will be!
posted by orme at 9:11 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by orme at 9:11 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
I wanted that clip to be much longer. Or maybe I wanted to be one of those photographers.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 9:22 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 9:22 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
I too wanted the clip to run longer. Except I also worried for the dear little meerkats who now no longer fear humans and might be approached by a camera person who would be bad to them.
posted by S'Tella Fabula at 9:30 AM on May 24, 2012
posted by S'Tella Fabula at 9:30 AM on May 24, 2012
Heyho, I swear I was watching when that Carson moment happened
Indeed. I watched the Johnny Carson doc on "American Masters" last week, and I was astonished at how many of the clips from about, say, 1977 on I remembered from their original airings, including the marmoset on his head.
Having also watched waaaay too many seasons of "Meerkat Manor", I wasn't really surprised that the meerkats has become acclimated to the filmmakers, but the clips are astoundingly cute.
posted by briank at 9:33 AM on May 24, 2012
Indeed. I watched the Johnny Carson doc on "American Masters" last week, and I was astonished at how many of the clips from about, say, 1977 on I remembered from their original airings, including the marmoset on his head.
Having also watched waaaay too many seasons of "Meerkat Manor", I wasn't really surprised that the meerkats has become acclimated to the filmmakers, but the clips are astoundingly cute.
posted by briank at 9:33 AM on May 24, 2012
Imagine the photographer who first tipped into landscape and had no idea he was about to become a really awesome perch, experiencing low-level alarm mixed with excitement followed by the realization that he forevermore needed to be much more aware of individual meerkat eating and drinking schedules.
posted by vegartanipla at 9:56 AM on May 24, 2012
posted by vegartanipla at 9:56 AM on May 24, 2012
You know the meerkat that is atop the standing photographer is totally thinking "TALLEST! MEERKAT EVAR!!! I WIN."
It should know better than to compare the meerkats.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:04 AM on May 24, 2012
It should know better than to compare the meerkats.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:04 AM on May 24, 2012
Don't let them fool you. They're just on the lookout to make sure everyone has time to hide the cigarettes and the scotch before the photographers get close....
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 10:18 AM on May 24, 2012
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 10:18 AM on May 24, 2012
Hello I am Meerkat, I am adorable, yes? LET ME TASTE YOUR EYEBALLS.
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:23 AM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:23 AM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
I mean...well, in this case, any more photographers....
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 10:54 AM on May 24, 2012
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 10:54 AM on May 24, 2012
This is the kind of thing I love about MeFi. I never would have seen this otherwise and now I'm in a better mood than I was 10 minutes ago. Not that I was in a bad mood to begin with but still. It's better now.
posted by bowmaniac at 11:27 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by bowmaniac at 11:27 AM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Photographers should beware. This is just a step in the meerkats' devious plan to turn the photographers into instruments of war against the neighboring tribes. Imagine the fear they will instill riding their giant beasts into battle!
posted by rich at 11:34 AM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by rich at 11:34 AM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
"I've been lucky enough to film with elephants, gorillas, bears and none of them have ever sat on my head."
I'd say he's doubly lucky, then.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:25 PM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'd say he's doubly lucky, then.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:25 PM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
We are witnessing the start of a new symbiotic relationship. Much like the man-o-war,over the next few millenia the photographers and meerkats will evolve and change into a strange siphonophore mutually adapting to form a colonial organism. Adolescent photographers will live lives much like their human ancestors. Aside from hands adapted for the use of cameras and a modified skeletal system to facilitate laying motionless for long periods of time, you might even think they were human. At the age of ascension they undergo the ritual of bonding and will be wheeled out to the meerkat fields.
From that day on they remain unmoving observers, all their needs are met by the meerkats that frolic in their shadows and climb atop their heads. As the clothes of their youth fall to rags they are festooned with leafy branched, dragged there by meerkats. They are fed desert lizards and insects and when they are cold they are warmed by the tiny bodies of meetkats nestled against their own.
posted by Ad hominem at 4:13 PM on May 24, 2012
From that day on they remain unmoving observers, all their needs are met by the meerkats that frolic in their shadows and climb atop their heads. As the clothes of their youth fall to rags they are festooned with leafy branched, dragged there by meerkats. They are fed desert lizards and insects and when they are cold they are warmed by the tiny bodies of meetkats nestled against their own.
posted by Ad hominem at 4:13 PM on May 24, 2012
They've replaced Sir David Attenborough with Richard Hammond for the voice-overs? Eww.
Here's some Attenborough for you.
posted by homunculus at 11:32 AM on May 28, 2012
Here's some Attenborough for you.
posted by homunculus at 11:32 AM on May 28, 2012
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posted by maudlin at 7:24 AM on May 24, 2012 [8 favorites]