It was a family portrait with a difference. Meerkats at Longleat safari park hijacked the camera when a photographer left his equipment in their enclosure.

Having used the tripod as a climbing frame the inquisitive animals soon discovered how to fire the shutter. The results may not be perfect, as they were a little out of focus, but they are better than many first snaps taken by human beings.

Ian Turner, the deputy head warden at the park and house in Wiltshire, was taking pictures for a new glossy brochure when he went to get another camera. He was astonished when he returned to the meerkat mountain enclosure five minutes later to find three new pictures on the camera’s digital memory card. The photographer is believed to have been Monty, an alpha adult male who usually leads the family of eight, which is known as a mob.

Mr Turner said: “To say I was surprised is an understatement. To actually get up to the camera and take a family portrait is quite incredible. They are some of the more inquisitive creatures here at Longleat and will generally get their nose and paws into most things. I don’t think we’ll be handing over the reins to them just yet but you never know, maybe we have a film crew in the making.”

Monty did, however, make the habitual mistake of the amateur snapper – managing to cut off his subject’s head in one photograph.

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