Meerkat finds love on 'dating website'

A lonely heart meerkat has finally found love thanks to a dating website set up especially for her by her owners.

Staff at Twinlakes Park in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, were running out of ideas to find female meerkat Lilly a partner after a male lined up to come to the park fell through.

They then decided to set up meerkatmatch.com, advertising the three-year-old as an "alert, dark-eyed, inquisitive, free spirited lady with a good sense of humour who enjoys fine dining, digging and cosy nights in."

Since then, the site has had 74,000 hits and bosses at Twinlakes were contacted by a breeder who offered a match, a two-year-old male from Cambridge. Named Mr Darcy by staff at the park, he has joined Lilly and the pair are getting on like a house on fire.

Park manager Sandy Gyorvari said Mr Darcy had already settled in well and had been accepted by lonely Lilly: "He's lovely, he's very nice mannered, and they're getting on really well. With her being on her own for a while, we were worried she had become a bit humanised and how she would react to another meerkat, she was either going to accept him or not but it's worked out really well."

She said they hoped it would not be long before they heard the patter of tiny meerkat feet at Twinlakes, and they plan to set up a webcam so people can watch the budding romance between Lilly and Mr Darcy.