Stocktake of London Zoo's 10,000 animals begins

ZSL A grey and black ring-tailed lemur and a board with a tally of the animals on ZSL
ZSL A brown-nosed coati walks along a wall next to a zoo keeperZSL

Ring-tailed lemurs were photographed as they braved the freezing Friday morning as the big count began
This brown-nosed coati walked on by as it was counted by the zookeeper

Keepers at London Zoo have begun counting up each bird, reptile and invertebrate at the attraction for its annual stocktake.

The zoo, run by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), is home to more than 10,000 animals, including many recent additions.

Last year saw the arrival of two baby western lowland gorillas, three Asiatic lion cubs, an okapi, 53 evolutionary extinct frogs and some leeches.

The stocktake, which began on Friday morning, is expected to take almost a week to complete.

The results will be shared with other zoos around the world and will be used to help manage help manage global worldwide conservation breeding programmes for endangered animals.

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