Animals at London Zoo step onto the scales for their annual weigh-in

Animals at London Zoo step onto the scales for their annual weigh-in

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Staff at London Zoo got the measure of giant gorillas, plump penguins and skinny stick insects at the zoo’s annual animal weigh-in on Thursday.

Zookeepers tempted squirrel monkeys onto scales with treats, totted up tarantulas and used a curry-scented measuring stick to coax Sumatran tigers to stretch out.

Staff at the zoo, which is home to some 14,000 animals, will take several days to weigh and measure every mammal, bird, reptile, fish and invertebrate in its care.

The results go into a database that is shared with zoos around the world.


A Zookeeper tempts a squirrel monkey onto a scale with treats.
A Zookeeper tempts a squirrel monkey onto a scale with treats.
Brett D. Cove / SplashNews.com

A Giant Stick Insect is measured by a zoo staffer while it hangs from a twig.
A Giant Stick Insect is measured by a zoo staffer while it hangs from a twig.
Brett D. Cove / SplashNews.com

Staff at the zoo, which is home to some 14,000 animals, will take several days to weigh and measure every mammal, bird, reptile, fish and invertebrate in its care.
Staff at the zoo, which is home to some 14,000 animals, will take several days to weigh and measure every mammal, bird, reptile, fish and invertebrate in its care.
MEGA

A Western Lowland Gorilla walks past a measuring board in its enclosure at the London Zoo.
A Western Lowland Gorilla walks past a measuring board in its enclosure at the London Zoo.
MEGA

A group of Humboldt Penguins circle around a scale in their enclosure, as a zookeeper attempts to weigh the birds.
A group of Humboldt Penguins circle around a scale in their enclosure, as a zookeeper attempts to weigh the birds.
Brett D. Cove / SplashNews.com

A Sumatran tiger stretches out against a curry-scented measuring stick set up by the zoom to measure the big cat.
A Sumatran tiger stretches out against a curry-scented measuring stick set up by the zoo to measure the big cat.
MEGA

Frank the Meerkat is weighed during London Zoo's Annual Weigh In, in London on Aug. 24, 2023.
Frank the Meerkat is weighed during London Zoo’s Annual Weigh In, in London on Aug. 24, 2023.
AP

“We record the vital statistics of every animal at the zoo — from the tallest giraffe to the tiniest tadpole,” said Angela Ryan, the facility’s head of zoological operations.

Ryan said an animal’s weight is vital information that can reveal whether creatures are healthy, and even which are pregnant.

“We have critically endangered animals here,” she said. “It’s absolutely vital that we are managing them, managing their health, that we’re breeding them and breeding them well and we’re having healthy offspring that can breed on again.”



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