OPINION - The secret science behind a simple count: why we do the London Zoo stocktake

Five Asiatic lions, seven western lowland gorillas, three reticulated giraffes, 53 Darwin’s frogs, 65 Humboldt penguins…it’s been a busy day at London Zoo as our zookeepers have begun the mammoth task of counting every animal for our annual stocktake, a headcount of every animal in our care.

I hope it goes without saying that we count our animals every day, so there are no surprises on stocktake day. Despite that, each January our animals are tallied up in the annual census, marking an official date to record our animal numbers and submit them to our local council as one of the conditions for our license.