Your morning adorable: London Zoo’s meerkats celebrate Christmas early (with mealworms!)

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Christmas came early for the meerkat residents of the London Zoo, who received the best gift ever (if you’re a meerkat) from their keepers Wednesday. That gift? Christmas crackers stuffed with delicacies: mealworms and locusts. That’s like winning the meerkat lottery!

‘The meerkats love to explore new things, so we thought we’d surprise them with a gift that they can get they paws into,’ keeper Mark Habben explained. The gifts also served as an enrichment activity for the meerkats as well as the zoo’s South American coati residents, who also received Christmas crackers stuffed with treats.

More meerkat photos after the jump!

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-- Lindsay Barnett

First, second, third photos: Carl de Souza / AFP/Getty Images
Fourth photo: Oli Scarff / Getty Images
Fifth photo: Matt Dunham / Associated Press