Marwell Zoo conducts annual animal count
More than 100 species call the Hampshire wildlife park home
Keepers at Marwell Zoo near Winchester have been spending their time totting up the number of animals which call the wildlife park home.
The annual audit is carried out at the start of every year at zoos across the country, both as a legal requirement and to give a bigger picture of conservation efforts.
This year’s audit revealed that Marwell held a total of 31 flamingos, two pygmy hippopotamus, four Kirk’s Dik-dik and two Brazillian Salmon Tarantula.
The audit also recorded 15 zebra - five of each species (Hartmanns Mountain, Plains and Grevy’s) making Marwell the only UK zoo to house all three.
Marwell's two male Beisa Oryx, the only ones in UK collections, were also recorded on the stocktake, alongside a pair of clouded leopards who arrived in the summer, Goeldi’s monkeys and red bellied lemurs – all new additions to this year’s tally.
In total Marwell counted 138 species, including 18 invertebrate species, 13 fish, 2 amphibians, 17 reptiles, 31 birds and 57 mammals.
All of this years births and deaths are also captured by the audit, which records the exact number of animals held by the zoo on December 31st each year.
The spreadsheet also records any new arrival from other zoos as well as animals that leave us through breeding programmes to go elsewhere.
Debbie Pearson, the zoo's registrar, is in charge of collecting and keeping the data.
She said:
"We keep track of the animals throughout the year, if they go to other collections and of course when we have new arrivals, but the audit is a chance to take stock of everything living at the zoo on that one specific day each year. It’s an important part of our zoo licensing agreement.
“Most of the animals are counted as individuals but there are some very small species, such as the millipedes, vampire crabs and snails that are counted in groups because it’s difficult to get an accurate count with such large numbers.”
A full list of all the animals included in this year’s count can be found on the Marwell website.