WARTS AND ALL

If the names Timon, Pumbaa, Simba or Nala don't mean anything to you, then you probably don't know people who count their age in single digits. These are names many zookeepers hear every day as children gazing at meerkats, warthogs and lion cubs recall the characters from Disney's 1994 hit The Lion King. "The popularity of these animals in the last three years has been amazing," says Greg Hudson, director of the Fort Worth (Texas) Zoo. "It's great. We can take that and educate [more kids] about the social structure of those animals."

By happy chance, warthogs and meerkats also make neat zoo animals. Unlike most desert creatures, including lions, both are busy during the day. Warthogs wallow in mud (it's their sunscreen) and throw clumps of it at one another. Meerkats, highly gregarious, dig and perch cutely on their haunches. While no zoo admits to choosing its new guests because of a movie, several will have suspiciously Lion King-appropriate exhibitions open this summer, notably Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Fla., which has an "Edge of Africa" safari based on the Serengeti, where the movie was set; and the Oklahoma City Zoo, which houses both meerkats and lions in its "Lion Overlook." At the San Diego Wild Animal Park's new "Heart of Africa" exhibit, guests can participate in field experiments and get up close and personal with some animals. Hurry! Disney's next hit may be Hercules, and no zoos have winged horses.