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Lead the Meerkats was released in the midst of a boom in popularity for the African mongoose in the United Kingdom, started by a series of commercials for the Compare The Market insurance comparison website depicting a rivalry between the website and "Compare the Meerkat", a fake website run by Russian meerkats. This lead to a very high demand for meerkat-related merchandise, meerkat exhibits in zoos, and pet meerkats. Since Lead the Meerkats was published by UK-based Lapland Studios, it is very likely that the game was inspired by, or made to cash in on, the fad.
Articles and forum posts about the popularity of meerkats in the UK at that point:
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/kool-for-kats-how-meerkats-conquered-the-world-1802721.html
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/blogs/moatas-blog-idle/4516577/The-Meerkats-shall-inherit-the-Earth
https://www.shipshapecleaning.co.uk/2009/12/07/save-the-meerkats/
https://www.zoochat.com/community/threads/where-was-the-first-meerkat-exhibit-and-how-did-the-meerkat-craze-spread.299884/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1206429/Mad-meerkats-Theyre-impossibly-cute-great-family-values-Britains-favourite-animal.html
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2011/08/27/meerkats-not-simples-to-keep-warns-expert/
Article revealing that LTM's publisher is UK-based:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/05/28/lapland-studios-announces-lead-the-meerkats
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/kool-for-kats-how-meerkats-conquered-the-world-1802721.html
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/blogs/moatas-blog-idle/4516577/The-Meerkats-shall-inherit-the-Earth
https://www.shipshapecleaning.co.uk/2009/12/07/save-the-meerkats/
https://www.zoochat.com/community/threads/where-was-the-first-meerkat-exhibit-and-how-did-the-meerkat-craze-spread.299884/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1206429/Mad-meerkats-Theyre-impossibly-cute-great-family-values-Britains-favourite-animal.html
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2011/08/27/meerkats-not-simples-to-keep-warns-expert/
Article revealing that LTM's publisher is UK-based:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/05/28/lapland-studios-announces-lead-the-meerkats
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