'Meerkat Manor' is a wildlife documentary series about a family of meerkats living on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. They live, forage and eat in groups - without this mentality they would be easy pickings for predators. This series follows the plight of more than a dozen families as part of the Kalahari Meerkat Project, which is a long-term field study into the behaviour of the creatures. They are members of the mongoose family, which are native to the Botswana desert and South Africa. Their lifespan is generally 12-14 years and they spend most of their time foraging for food. While a group of them scavenge, one member is tasked with keeping a lookout for predators. Bill Nighy offers his voice to the narration and each of the meerkats are given names so that we can easily identify them and follow their progress. It premiered on Animal Planet in 2005 before transferring to BBC Two in 2007.