Zoo staff take stock for annual animal audit

Staff at a Hampshire zoo have been carrying out their annual stock to keep track of thousands of different animals from nearly 150 different species.

Marwell Zoo, near Winchester, Hampshire, has seen the number of species it takes care of increase from 138 at the end of 2022 to 145 by the end of 2023.

This includes 19 invertebrate species as well as 14 fish, three amphibian, 21 reptile, 31 bird and 57 mammal species living across the zoo’s 140-acre park.

Rhiannon Wolff counts the giraffes during Marwell Zoo’s annual animal audit (Marwell Zoo/PA Wire)

The finalised numbers have to be submitted to Winchester City Council in January each year.

A zoo spokeswoman said: “It’s that time of year again and our keepers have been busy filling out Marwell’s annual animal audit which is an important requirement of the charity’s zoo licence.

“The mammoth job of counting and recording every species in the park takes place in zoos around the country at the beginning of each year.

“This year’s audit revealed 52 births throughout 2023, including six blue-faced honeyeater chicks, five starred agama, four red-tailed laughing thrush chicks, three banteng calves and three Przewalski’s foals.”

New species that have arrived at the zoo in the past year include three Egyptian spiny-tailed lizards, three rough scaled plated lizards and three Algerian Spur thighed tortoise as well as two rock hyrax which are now all living in Thriving Through Nature, the zoo’s newly refurbished tropical house.

The spokeswoman added: “Not every animal can be counted individually. Some of the zoo’s smallest critters are counted in groups to ease the process.

Bea Cameron takes note of a mongoose for Marwell Zoo’s annual animal audit (Marwell Zoo/PA Wire)

“These include critters such as our Extinct in the Wild partula snails as well as assassin snails, sun beetles, crickets and red-legged millipedes.

“Fish are also counted in groups along with the zoo’s tiny yellow-throated frogs, the sand lizards that are part of our native reintroduction programmes and our vampire crabs.”

New arrivals at the zoo also include two caracara, five Brazilian guinea pigs and four bush dogs.

Rhiannon Wolff, animal keeper for hoofstock, said: “Carrying out the animal audit every year is one of the conditions of the Zoo Licensing Act.

“We have to keep up-to-date records of every individual animal in the zoo: this involves taking note of all births, deaths, imports and exports.”

Bea Cameron, animal keeper for carnivores, said: “We keep track of all our animals on site all year round but the animal audit is a ‘snapshot’ of the animals in the zoo from one year to the next.

“It helps give us an overall look of our year including births, deaths, and new arrivals, and is an important overview of our conservation efforts from one year to the next.”

The zoo spokeswoman said that the audit gave an indication of the work by Marwell Wildlife, the conservation charity that runs the zoo.