ROSS PARRY SYNDICATION: Cuter than any spring lamb these pictures show a four-week-old meerkat taking a first peek at its new home under the watchful eye of Mum.

And this little bundle of fur is just one a trio of newly born meerkats at Tropical World in Leeds, West Yorks.

Lauded as the first success of a new breeding programme the four-week-old mere-kittens have only this week started to be brought to the surface by their proud mum.

They have spent the last three weeks completely underground in their burrows under her protection.

The babies are not yet old enough for their sexes to be determined but mature quickly as they reach adulthood in just 12 months.

They spend the first six weeks of life totally dependent on their mother, but will then quickly acquire a taste for worms and grubs.

The trio are the first meerkats to be born at Tropical World in over 10 years, and with the gestation period for a meerkat being short at 75 days, the animal keepers hope this success will be repeated.