A Simples escape! Meerkat family save newborn pups from snake which invaded burrow

A family of brave meerkats pull together to save their newborn pups - after their burrow was invaded by a deadly snake.

The venomous puff adder was spotted invading the home where the five newborns were sleeping at the Kalahari Meerkat Project in South Africa.

The meerkats, known for living in tight-knit families, rallied round and dragged the babies away from danger - but not before one female was bitten by the snake.

Amazingly, despite a serious injury to her leg, the female continued to help and managed to carry all five youngsters to safety.

British photographer, Robin Hoskyns, captured the commotion on camera.

Robin, from Leicester was working as a research assistant at the Kalahari Meerkat Project in South Africa at the time and said the event summed up the strength and determination of meerkats.

He said: 'Meerkat pups stay underground and don't emerge for up to three weeks until their eyes have opened and they are able to react to their environment a little.

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'During this time the group generally leave up to three individuals to babysit at the burrow.

'On this particular morning I arrived at the burrow and sat down to wait, and waited, and waited.

'About three hours after the usual time for this group to be up, the sunrise had long gone and it was starting to get hot when I heard noises coming from the burrow.

'Suddenly the group emerged. Usually a group gets up casually one by one and they sit about at the entrance for a while to warm up before leaving but this time was different.

'It was a frenzy of meerkats coming up from different holes and popping back down again. After about 10 minutes of this activity I spotted a slightly purplish lump in the middle of the frenzy.

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'At first I thought it was dead but I saw it try to raise its head. In the next 20 minutes they brought up two more pups and then another two so five in total.

'At some point I noticed the dominant females leg was badly swollen and bleeding. Due to the swelling I predicted that it was a snake bite and sure enough when I managed to get a glimpse down the burrow I saw the head of a rather angry puff adder.

'The group at that time had four juveniles which were almost sub-adults who were all obviously very excited by everything that was going on and kept trying to pick up the pups which they could only just lift, moving them a couple of metres and running back to the burrow.

'This carried on for quite some time. Eventually the dominant female picked up one of the pups and made for the next nearest burrow, probably about 300 metres away.

'She eventually managed to carry all five pups to the next burrow almost by herself with a now massively swollen front leg. All the pups survived their ordeal and so did the dominant female.

'Looking back, it was up there with the top wildlife experiences I had in the past year as a meerkat research assistant.

'It was amazing to witness the strength and determination of that dominant female and I'm glad I took my camera out that day.'