Lonely Meerkat Finds Love Online

By Monique Jessen, Tonic

When an arranged marriage fell through, Lilly the meerkat faced an uncertain and lonely future. But her keepers were determined to find her a suitable mate. Step forward the world’s first meerkat dating website.

Meerkat Match described the 3-year-old female as an “alert, dark-eyed, inquisitive, free spirited lady with a good sense of humor who enjoys fine dining, digging and cozy nights in,” reports Britain’s Metro. And 74,000 hits later, they hit jackpot, finding Lilly the perfect match.

The successful candidate was a 2-year-old male from Cambridge, amusingly called Mr. Darcy (there are no obvious similarities to Colin Firth as far as we can see). Emma Roe, office manager and meerkat match-maker at the park is delighted with the pairing. “Meerkats live in large social groups and within the group there is only one dominant breeding pair — he was an underdog in a mob of nine and the ideal catch for Lilly,” she said adding: “Having no name we felt ‘Mr. Darcy’ was appropriate for our romantic hero.”

The website was such a huge success that the staff at Twinlakes Park in Melton Mowbray in the UK are looking to turn it into the first social networking site for the furry little mammals and are setting up a webcam so people can watch the blossoming romance of the cute couple.

With all those cozy nights in, lets hope the patter of tiny meerkat paws will be soon to follow.

Read more: Nature & Wildlife, Pets, love, meerkats, webcam