No soap opera is complete without a betrayal. In the meerkat exhibit, the dominant female is the queen. She has a loyal, if boring, mate. But a rogue male, recently transferred from the Sacramento zoo, arrives with a scar on his ear and a swagger in his step. The queen is intrigued. The drama unfolds in real-time: the loyal mate standing sentry (trying to look brave) while the rogue distracts her with a particularly juicy beetle. Will the queen exile her faithful partner? Will the rogue stage a coup? Expect digging, screaming, and reconciliations that happen faster than you can say "clan warfare."

When Tulip left, Thabo laid down in the transfer chute for three days. He was biologically fine, but his keepers swear he was depressed. Unrequited love, it turns out, is not uniquely human.

This zoo has explicitly framed its animal relationships as a "soap opera".