London Zoo begins painstaking stocktake of its 10,000 animals

The animals were counted two-by-two, as keepers at London Zoo started to count all their creatures great and small as part of their annual stocktake. 

Throughout the year, their expert staff care for over 10,000 individual animals from tiny invertebrates to giant mammals – as well as birds, reptiles and amphibians. 

But every new year the clipboards and calculators come out as zookeepers begin the careful count of their numbers, from inquisitive squirrel monkeys to critically endangered Asiatic lions. 

Among those being totted up were the zoo’s colony of 65 Humboldt penguins, including five new arrivals who will form important new breeding pairs in the spring for the European breeding programme to conserve this vulnerable species. 

In early 2024, London Zoo’s troop of critically endangered Western lowland gorillas welcomed the birth of two baby gorillas – Juno and Venus – marking a massive conservation success in its support of global population numbers. 

As keepers began the formal counting requirements for the primates, the two young gorillas were carried on the backs of their mothers, Mjukuu and Effie, and both young gorillas were accounted for in the stocktake’s tally. 

Last year also saw important additions to the European Breeding Programme for Asiatic lions with the birth of three cubs – Mali, Syanii and Shanti – a boost for the endangered species now only found in Gujarat’s Gir Forest.  

Meanwhile last autumn also saw 53 tiny Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) Darwin’s frogs brought to the conservation Zoo from Chile, as part of an effort to save the species from a deadly fungus.

And the arrival of adult UK-native medicinal leeches kick started a breeding programme at London Zoo to save this highly vulnerable species, while zookeepers were delighted to welcome Mzimu, a male okapi, to form a new breeding pair with female okapi Oni.  

The annual stocktake takes keepers almost a week and the info is shared with other world zoos via a database used to help manage the worldwide conservation breeding programmes for endangered animals.