GALLERY A wildlife park in Essex has welcomed some new arrivals in the form of a litter of four tiny meerkats.

Elliot Furniss

A WILDLIFE park in Essex has welcomed some new arrivals in the form of a litter of four tiny meerkats.

Staff at the Tropical Wings Wildlife Park in South Woodham Ferrers were surprised by the discovery, which came just weeks after five babies were born in April.

The new babies are a month old and they are still very cute and tiny.

As newborns, they are about three inches long, blind and deaf, with a thin layer of fur, and it is not until about 10 days that their eyes and ears begin to open.

Keeper Gemma Hiskett said the meerkats were “wonderful” to work with.

She said: “They are very cheeky with colourful personalities. We are delighted to be building our meerkat colony and we are really pleased that the adults have such excellent parenting skills.”

The babies won't reach sexual maturity until about a year, so their sex remains unknown. They are currently enjoying mum's milk and broadening their diet with little pieces of meat and vegetables.”

The park's meerkat enclosure is sandy and rocky, mimicking their natural environment of the Kalahari Desert in Africa.

The animals also have a warm chamber with heating, so they enjoy temperatures of up to about 75 degrees all year round.