Wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas made some adorable new friends on a recent trip to Botswana: a family of meerkats.

The British shutterbug came face to face with the too-cute family of critters while in the Makgadikgadi region of the country earlier this year.

The young family soon became accustomed to the photographer, and began readily posing for photos, and in return Burrard-Lucas let them use him as a lookout post.

“These tiny babies first emerged from the den a day or so into my trip and after that I spent a lot of time with them so they became very comfortable around me. In fact, it wasn’t long before they were treating me like their own personal plaything!” Burrard-Lucas wrote on his website.