Summer has arrived and Dudley Zoo's meerkats are having bucket loads of fun following a delivery of new sand for their enclosure.

Instead of simply tipping the sand straight in, keepers mixed in mealworms and filled buckets to make sandcastles around the enclosure. Assistant Curator, Jay Haywood, said:

“The meerkats immediately dived into the sandcastles to find the treats hidden inside. Meerkats are excellent diggers and have very long claws which help them.

They normally dig underground, but this is also a fun way for visitors to see them at work. The sandcastles only lasted seconds, but at least they spread the sand across the floor for us, which saved us a job!”

Dudley Zoo have just launched their daily holiday schedule, with informative talks and feeds running throughout the day between 11.30am and 3.30pm.

For the first time, a lynx talk has been added into the packed programme, allowing visitors to learn all about the attractions three Carpathian lynx – Daisy, Dave and Dakota and a lemur talk to find out more about the cheeky Madagascan prosimians.

Dudley Zoo is open daily - for more information, visit dudleyzoo.org.uk.