UK

London Zoo embarks on two-day job counting 14,000 animals

The yearly stocktake is a requirement of the zoo’s annual licence.

Zoo keeper Jess counts Humboldt penguins during the annual stocktake at ZSL London Zoo in central London. Required as part of the zoo’s licence, the annual stock take includes every animal, with all other British zoos required to do similar yearly counts. Picture date: Wednesday January 3, 2024.
Zoo keeper Jess counts Humboldt penguins during the annual stocktake at ZSL London Zoo in central London. Required as part of the zoo’s licence, the annual stock take includes every animal, with all other British zoos required to do similar yearly counts. Picture date: Wednesday January 3, 2024. (Aaron Chown/PA)
By Max McLean, PA

Staff at London Zoo began the daunting task of counting around 14,000 animals on Wednesday, from giant tortoises and millipedes to penguins and tigers.

The yearly stocktake is a requirement of the zoo’s annual licence, and sees zookeepers count hundreds of species over the course of two days.

These include Sumatran tigers, Asiatic lions, Galapagos giant tortoises, zebras, penguins and endangered Seychelles giant millipedes.

Dan Simmonds, zoological operations manager, told the PA news agency: “It’s a really important day for us.

Zoo keeper Sam counts a giant millipede
Zoo keeper Sam counts a giant millipede (Aaron Chown/PA)
Zoo keeper Kim counts Priscilla and Polly, giant Galapagos Tortoises, during the annual stocktake at ZSL London Zoo
Zoo keeper Kim counts Priscilla and Polly, giant Galapagos Tortoises, during the annual stocktake at ZSL London Zoo (Aaron Chown/PA)

“Much as we know how many animals we’ve got here at the zoo, we like to formalise it once per year and it takes up to two days to count the animals.

“Across about 300 species, by the end of tomorrow we’ll have counted somewhere in the region of 14,000 animals.

“The keepers have got lots of tricks up their sleeve to be able to count these animals.”

Zoo keeper Jess counts Humboldt penguins
Zoo keeper Jess counts Humboldt penguins (Aaron Chown/PA)
Crispin, a sumatran tiger, takes part in the annual stocktake at ZSL London Zoo
Crispin, a sumatran tiger, takes part in the annual stocktake at ZSL London Zoo (Aaron Chown/PA)

New additions to the zoo in 2023 included a female sloth and six Socorro dove chicks, a species which is extinct in the wild.

Once all creatures have been recorded, the information will also be shared with zoos around the world as part of the ongoing effort to manage worldwide conservation breeding programmes for endangered animals.