Meerkat snaps a 'slight hoax'

WARMINSTER, England, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Reports that meerkats at a British zoo took family snapshots when a camera was accidentally left in their enclosure were too good to be true.

Amateur Photographer, a magazine for hobbyists, spotted the hitch in the story, The Telegraph reported. While the pictures posted online of the meerkats were taken with a digital camera, the one that Ian Turner, deputy head warden at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire, said the camera he left with the meerkats was a Canon EOS 650, which uses old-fashioned film.

"It started off as a joke,” head warden Keith Harris told the magazine. “It was a slight hoax. The meerkats didn't take any pictures at all."

Turner was on vacation and not commenting.

The snaps, actually taken by human photographers, were published in a number of newspapers as meerkat works.

Meerkats are small mammals native to southern Africa. They live in groups known as mobs or clans.