This week brings us Armed Forces Day, Midsummer Day, International Chicken Wing Day, and World UFO Day.

The most relevant for our Oasis, however, is International Mud Day. Established in 2009 at the World Forum for Early Childhood Care and Education, this day celebrates outdoor play to help children of the world feel closer to nature and to each other.

Here at the Oasis, our meerkat exhibit, opened in early 2021, was specifically built to encourage children to play like meerkats.

We have a sandpit for digging with hidden surprises, sharing a glass wall with the meerkat burrows, as well as a tunnel so kids can get up close and personal.

In the wild, meerkats live in mobs of between 3 and 25 individuals, often composed of a few family groups.

The matriarch of the mob is usually the only one to breed, and the other members help with babysitting, foraging, and keeping lookout.

The burrows are a safe place from not only predators but also the harsh sun and cold nights.

Other mammals at the Wildlife Oasis that love getting dirty in mud, soil and dust just as much as small children, are the southern giant pouched rat and our hairy armadillos.

Our male armadillo, Tank, loves nothing more than unearthing our lovely plants by digging up the soil and transforming a nicely grown plant area into just a pile of dust and soil.

The chinchilla and common degu actually bathe in dust rather than water.

We have many examples of insects that love digging in the soil as well.

Sun beetles, giant African millipedes, death’s head cockroaches, Madagascar hissing cockroaches and our ever popular colony of leafcutter ants all use the soil to bury themselves in or utilise it to make their homes.

The daily routine of our keepers includes not only feeding animals and cleaning exhibits, but also making sure our animals have the correct environment to stay happy and healthy.

We monitor temperature, humidity, ultraviolet light exposure, dietary intake, weight, and behaviour.

After all, any creature that loves playing in the mud needs to have the correct type of mud to dig in.