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London Zoo counts its new residents in census

PA Media A squirrel monkey leans over a clipboard as a zoo keeper writes.PA Media
The zoo's squirrel monkeys helped out with some of the mental arithmetic in this year's list

Penguin chicks and pygmy goats are among the new entries in the list of residents at London Zoo, which is conducting its annual census.

Plenty of new additions arrived in 2022, including a western lowland gorilla and two tiger cubs.

Each year, keepers take a record of all the animals at the zoo, which houses about 300 different species.

The count of every mammal, bird, reptile, fish and invertebrate usually takes about a week to complete.

EPA A Western lowland gorilla named Kiburi eats in front of a chalk board during the annual stocktakeEPA
Western lowland gorilla Kiburi double-checks names on a chalkboard

As well as the annual full count, required as part of the zoo's licence, keepers also have an inventory that is updated continuously.

PA Media Humboldt penguins queue up to be counted by a keeper at London Zoo.PA Media
Humboldt penguins push to the front of the queue to be counted

Dan Simmonds, operations manager of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs the zoo, said: "With more than 14,000 to count at ZSL London Zoo, our keepers all have their own ways of tallying up the animals in their care.

He said this included some keepers "taking pictures of the coral tank in Tiny Giants to avoid counting the same fish twice", to others "using training and rewards to count larger groups, such as our squirrel monkeys and Humboldt penguins".

PA Media Two Sumatran tiger cubs climb up a tree with a blackboard showing population numbers.PA Media
Sumatran tiger cubs, Zac and Crispin, tussle over a tally-board on a tree
EPA Pygmy goats run ahead of two zoo keepers carrying buckets of food.EPA
Chestnut, Buttons and Truffle the pygmy goats parade with the rest of the zoo's herd
PA Media A Majorcan midwife toad looks at the camera as it is counted during the annual stocktake at the zoo.PA Media
Some of the residents are trickier to calculate, like this Majorcan midwife toad
PA Media A meerkat grapples with a pen during the stocktake.PA Media
One meerkat reached out to zoo keepers directly to make sure their name was on the list
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