of alterations to help viewers connect the animals on the show to their real-life counterparts, and to match episodes to the monthly KMP Life History reports. The list, however, is only available to paying members of their website. Two of the major Whiskers family rivals were composites, created with footage and blended stories from multiple groups. For example, the Commandoes group on the show uses some of events from the real Commandoes group, but was primarily shown with footage from the Vivian research group – including its dominant couple. Similarly, the show's Zappa group was mostly presented using footage from a group called "The Young Ones" (named after the British television show); however, the actual story and dominant pair were from the real Zappa Group. Axel, the abandoned pup from series three, has a research number that indicates he was probably a Young Ones pup, rather than being a Zappa as the show claims. Reception Meerkat Manor has been well received by viewers and critics alike. In October 2007, it was Animal Planet's top series, with an audience of more than four million in the United States alone. In the United States, its first episode was viewed by one million viewers, and the second and third series premieres were watched by approximately 800,000 viewers each. The fourth series premiere did not fare as well, with fewer than 500,000 viewers. The viewership of the on-demand video offerings for Meerkat Manor grew 20% in September 2007, when Discovery offered each third series episode, video capsules of series one and two, top ten moments from the show, and a memorial sequence for Flower. Building on the success of Meerkat Manor's unique format, Animal Planet commissioned two similarly formatted programmes: Orangutan Island, which focuses on a group of orphaned orangutans at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, and Lemur Street, which looks at the lives of two rival gangs of ring-tailed lemurs in Madagascar. Some fans have criticized the show for its non-interference policy with regard to the meerkats, asking why the film crew and researchers do not give anti-venom to snake-bitten meerkats, or euthanize those dying and suffering. US Executive Producer Mick Kaczorowski pointed out that Meerkat Manor was a show about the real lives and deaths of the meerkats. The research group has a policy against film crews interceding in natural events "because they don't want to have an effect