While out shooting meerkats in Botswana, photographer Will Burrard-Lucas transformed into the most adorable look-out post in the history of human-animal interactions, and if you don’t believe us, just take a look at the pictures and his behind the scenes video we’ve included below.

According to Burrard-Lucas, the wild meerkats he was out shooting (with a camera) are in fact wild, but having been around humans so much, they realize that our species isn’t a threat — well, at least most of the ones they’ve met.

Here’s Burrard-Lucas’ BTS video in which he explains all this while the resourceful creatures climb all over his gear… and himself: