All of the best images from the ZSL London Zoo annual stocktake as zookeepers tally up every mammal, bird, reptile and invertebrate at the zoo despite freezing temperatures
The annual stocktake at ZSL London Zoo is underway with zookeepers and animals braving the freezing temperatures.
As the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) enters its 200th year as a charity, zookeepers have readied their clipboards and calculators as they begin tallying up every mammal, bird, reptile and invertebrate at the zoo. Home to more than 8,000 animals, everything from tiny leafcutter ants to the giant silverback gorillas much be accounted for.
The annual stocktake is a licensing requirement and helps inform global conservation breeding programmes. With snow falling on the capital and temperatures dropping below zero, employees got to work and were pictured counting Humboldt penguins, Asiatic lions, corals, Seychelles millipedes and capybaras on Tuesday.
Dan Simmonds, head keeper at the zoo, explained the importance of this year’s stocktake, with ZSL celebrating its 200th year. “We’ve been counting animals at London zoo for 200 years. It’s a really important day [and] it’s also a great day for visitors to be able to watch as well,” he said.
“Over 8,000 animals here so lots to count. Some easy ones like just two capybara behind me. It’s -4C in London today and it was snowing a moment earlier but unlike the keepers who are freezing cold, the capybara are the lucky ones enjoying their heated shelter.
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“We will complete the day in quite a few hours. There’s lots and lots of counting and everything will get registered onto an international database that we share with other conservation zoos around the whole world.”
Zookeepers were up early on Tuesday and started the counting process at 7am, with every animal expected to be counted by the end of the day. Zookeepers said they recorded 75 Humboldt penguins, including the 16 chicks hatched in 2025, which was a boost for conservation of the species, as Humboldt penguins, originally from Chile and Peru, are classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and their numbers are declining in the wild.
Added to the tally this year were eight Socorro dove chicks, which hatched in 2025. This successful hatching marked a milestone in the mission to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.
London Zoo’s population of critically endangered Darwin’s frogs increased by eight in 2025. Darwin’s frogs are an EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered) species, and the birth of the young frogs was heralded as a landmark by ZSL conservationists leading the international project to save the species from being wiped out by a devastating chytrid fungus.
Below, Mirror Online has picked out the best images from annual stocktake.
