Some new arrivals gave staff at a Waltham Abbey farm "a bit of a surprise" ten years ago this week.

Meerkat pups are the newest arrivals at one of the district’s farms.

Their mother, Audrey, arrived at Lee Valley Park Farm in Waltham Abbey with two other meerkats in February and although staff knew she was expecting young, they had no idea when they would be born.

Kate Chaplin, 25, who is the duty manager at the farm, said: “It was a bit of a surprise when they came. Because meerkats are a wild species, she was still running around.

“They’re born with their eyes closed and are quite helpless. But she was sunbathing with one of them at one point and they sometimes follow her about when she’s looking for food.”

The other two meerkats, which were donated to the farm by mobile zoo Tropical Inc., have been called Elvis and Marilyn, but the babies do not yet have names.