Monty the meerkat is a

meerkat MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kilom ...

that made headlines in the British media in September 2007 for his purported ability to take pictures using a digital camera. The story turned out to be a

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

perpetrated by workers at Longleat Safari Park.

Story

As reported in '' The Times'', Ian Turner, the deputy head

warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically identic ...

at the Longleat Safari Park, was photographing meerkats in their enclosure. The pictures were needed to illustrate a new informational brochure about the park. Realizing that he would be better off with a different camera, Turner went out to get one, leaving behind the first camera on a tripod. When the warden returned, he was surprised to find that the camera he left behind had three more images on its memory card, images that he had not taken. Seeing no-one there but playful meerkats, the astonished photographer decided that the images were taken by a meerkat. After reviewing them, Turner realized that Monty – the head of the mob (group of meerkats) – was not pictured in any of them, from which Turner deduced that Monty must have taken the pictures.

Coverage

''The Times'' wrote that Monty claimed the tripod and "soon discovered how to fire the shutter". It compared the images taken by Monty to the "first snaps taken by human beings", and found the images taken by Monty to be of a better quality. Monty cut off the head of his subject in one frame, but otherwise took a good, albeit slightly out of focus, family portrait of the members of his mob. The story in '' The Guardian'', which described the meerkats as "turning paparazzi", discussed

anthropomorphism Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

and the dangers of training animals to act like humans. It joked that although photographers are sometimes insultingly called "monkeys", until now "cheeky reporters have never had the courage to suggest a meerkat could do a snapper's job." '' The Daily Telegraph'' also covered the story, and compared the images taken by Monty to those taken by photographer

David Bailey David Royston Bailey (born 2 January 1938) is an English photographer and director, most widely known for his fashion photography and portraiture, and role in shaping the image of the Swinging Sixties. Early life David Bailey was born at Wh ...

. Although ''The Daily Telegraph'' admitted that the images taken by meerkats were "perhaps not up to standards of David Bailey", it stated they were still "a remarkable achievement for the desert-dwelling creatures, who are arguably most famous for their proclivity for infanticide." The '' Daily Mirror'' stated that not only did meerkats enjoy photography, but " ey also love to wrestle, race and are even said to take part in singing ceremonies similar to

yodelling Yodeling (also jodeling) is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word ''yodel'' is derived from th ...

." Although a few newspapers provided a quote by Ian Turner, the warden, about meerkats getting "their nose and paws into most things", none of them specified which part of their bodies meerkats used to take the images: their noses or their paws, or both.

Hoax

Though most of the British press took the story at face value, a technician from '' Amateur Photographer'' stated it was "puzzling" that although reports claimed the images taken by the meerkats were stored on a "digital memory card", the camera used for it was reported as a

Canon EOS 650 The Canon EOS 650 is a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera. It was introduced on 2 March 1987, Canon's 50th anniversary, and discontinued in February 1989. It was the first camera in Canon's new EOS series, which was designed from scratch to suppo ...

, a 1987 film-based single lens reflex camera. ''Amateur Photographer'' requested clarification from the park officials, and the hoax was soon revealed. Keith Harris, the head warden at the park, "told AP's news editor Chris Cheesman: 'It started off as a joke. It was a slight hoax. The meerkats didn't take any pictures at all'", and that "it wasn't meant to be picked up by newspapers in this way". The original idea for the ruse occurred after park employees noticed the meerkats playing with the camera equipment. Roy Greenslade of ''The Guardian'' stated that he loved "that phrase – a "slight" hoax". On the other hand he found a few kind words to comfort "newspaper photographers": "The revelation of the hoax will certainly be a relief to newspaper photographers, who suffer from the indignity of being called 'monkeys' by reporters. If this had been a true story it would have confirmed the prejudices of their critics."

MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

described the whole story as one of the twelve "Hoaxes of the decade".

References

{{Reflist, 2, refs= {{Cite web, title= That’s what you call wildlife photography, date=6 September 2007, work=The Times , location=UK, author=Simon de Bruxelles , url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article2395285.ece, accessdate=11 February 2011 {{Cite web, title=Monty the Meerkat took wildlife snaps using an EOS 650, reports UK press, date=6 September 2007, publisher= Amateur Photographer, author=, url=http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Monty_the_Meerkat_took_wildlife_snaps_using_an_EOS_650_reports_iThe_Timesi_news_141872.html, accessdate=11 February 2011, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723160549/http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Monty_the_Meerkat_took_wildlife_snaps_using_an_EOS_650_reports_iThe_Timesi_news_141872.html, archive-date=23 July 2011, url-status=dead {{Cite web, title=Exposed: Meerkat photo story was a 'hoax', date=6 September 2007, publisher= Amateur Photographer, author=Chris Cheesman, url=http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Exposed_Meerkat_photo_story_was_a_hoax_news_141907.html, accessdate=11 February 2011, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723160556/http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Exposed_Meerkat_photo_story_was_a_hoax_news_141907.html, archive-date=23 July 2011, url-status=dead {{Cite web, title= Longleat Meerkats take photos of themselves, date=5 Sep 2007, work=The Daily Telegraph , location=UK, author=Matthew Moore and agencies, url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1562219/Longleat-Meerkats-take-photos-of-themselves.html, accessdate=11 February 2011 {{Cite web, title= Exposed: meerkat pictures were 'a slight hoax', date=7 September 2007, work=The Guardian , location=UK, author=Roy Greenslade, url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2007/sep/07/exposedmeerkatpictureswere, accessdate=7 September 2007 {{Cite web, title= The human zoo, date=7 September 2007, author=Patrick Barkham, work=The Guardian , location=UK, url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,2164105,00.html, accessdate=7 September 2007 {{Cite web, title= Monty the Meerkat's photo album, date=6 September 2007, work=Daily Mirror , location=UK, author=Richard Smith, url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2007/09/06/monty-the-meerkat-s-photo-album-115875-19742013/ {{Cite web, title=The meerkat that 'took photos', date=6 September 2007, publisher=MSN, author=Ian Jones, url=http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=150369786&page=10, access-date=6 March 2011, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714123931/http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=150369786&page=10, archive-date=14 July 2011, url-status=dead Hoaxes in England Individual meerkats 2007 in England 2007 hoaxes Individual animals in England

Story

Coverage

Hoax

See also

References