00:00Hello, yes, it's that time of year again when zookeepers are totting up the tigers, counting kangaroos and adding up anteaters as well.
00:09Yeah, keepers at London Zoo have begun recording an annual stock take to keep an eye on more than 8,000 animals that live there
00:17and monitor the number of babies that the animals have had.
00:21Now, the counting is supposed to take about a week to complete.
00:26The results will be shared with other zoos across the UK and internationally to help manage conservation breeding programmes for endangered animals.
00:38Recent arrivals have boosted numbers in key species.
00:42In July 2025, the Humboldt penguin colony grew when 16 chicks hatched in a single season,
00:49a major conservation win for vulnerable species native to Chile and Peru in South America, whose numbers were falling drastically in the wild.
01:01And then in April, eight Socorro dove chicks hatched at the zoo, marking a milestone in efforts to save the species from extinction.
01:09Classified as extinct in the wild, there are only 180 Socorro doves left globally, cared for by more by fewer than 50 conservation institutions.
01:21Here is what London head zookeeper, what a job title that is, by the way.
01:25Here is what the head zookeeper of London Zoo had to say.
01:28So today is the annual stock take here at London Zoo.
01:32As the name would suggest, something we do every year.
01:34But importantly, this year is our bicentenary year.
01:37So we've been counting animals at London Zoo for 200 years.
01:41It's a really important day.
01:42It's also a great day for visitors to be able to watch as well.
01:45Over 8,000 animals here.
01:47So lots to count.
01:48Some easy ones like just two capybara behind me.
01:51This is a new exhibit and Kiwi and Gizmo have been exploring.
01:56It's minus four in London today and it was snowing a moment earlier.
01:59But unlike the keepers who are freezing cold, the capybara, the lucky ones, they're enjoying their heated shelter.
02:05And we'll complete the day in quite a few hours.
02:08There's lots and lots of counting and everything will get registered onto an international database
02:12that we share with other conservation zoos around the whole world and other conservation partners.
02:17So quite a busy day, but lots going on.
02:19So the counting process is quite laborious.
02:22So keepers got in before 7 o'clock this morning.
02:25They'll be working right through until the end of the day, getting through all of those animals.
02:30The reality is we obviously know how many animals we've got here at the zoo.
02:33We count them every single day.
02:35But it's a formal process that enables us to register everything onto that international database.
02:41And indeed, with our local licensing authority, it's part of maintaining our zoo license that we manage an annual stock take.
02:48And it's something that will inform curators and scientists to ensure that zoos moving forward
02:53are maintaining the right populations in the right numbers with the right genetic diversity.
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