The zoo, which is almost two centuries old, carries out the almost week-long official count in early January each year, with several new additions already becoming highlights.
"We've had some really successful breedings in the last year," said animal operations supervisor Dan Simmonds, listing the 11 penguins, three Asiatic lion cubs and two gorilla cubs born in 2024.
The zoo also rescued 53 Darwin's frogs from Chile, which are among the zoo's so-called evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered species (EDGE), and raised several SoCal doves that are now extinct in the wild.
In the coming days, keepers in the various enclosures will be "very busy" as they count more than 10,000 animals of more than 400 species, Simmonds noted.
"We've been working since six hours ago this morning and will continue until the end of the day today, and then repeat for a few more days until we're done with the count," he said.
Yoga for lemurs
With morning temperatures close to 0 degrees Celsius in the middle of winter in London, some residents needed a little extra incentive to get out of their heated cubicles.
The eight otter lemurs, endangered primates native to Madagascar's dry forests and bushlands, were particularly shy at sunrise.
Eventually one pair made their way to an outdoor heating lamp, where they happily crouched in unison in yoga-like poses. The other Lemurians huddled for warmth under the heaters inside.
"Lemurs do sunbathing and their famous yoga pose - it allows them to get the sun's rays into the core of their body," Simmonds noted.
In the Gorilla Kingdom, they had no problem getting the seven western lowland gorillas out of their enclosures to visually confirm their numbers.
The group's two newest members, Juno and Venus, born last January and February, held on to their mothers as the group scrambled to pick up an assortment of mixed vegetables.
"We're really excited about the little gorillas. We've been trying for a long time to bring in a male, have him make friends with the females and then produce two offspring for us," said Glyn Hennessy, the zoo's lead primate keeper.
"And we see their personalities come out every day. They're very different, but it's great to see that the family group does have a few more members," he added of Juno and Venus.
Western lowland gorillas live in the tropical and swamp forests of West and Central Africa, where their numbers are threatened by deforestation, hunting and disease.
Remembering the penguins
Elsewhere in the zoo, the Humboldt penguins, which come from Peru and Chile, were busy swimming or basking in the morning sun while the count was underway.
In addition to the birth of 11 chicks last year, five new adults arrived from other European zoos, bringing the colony to 65.
Despite the large numbers, Simmonds said their keepers can identify each one individually.
"It's amazing - I certainly couldn't have done it," he added, noting that each has a small bracelet as a backup for identification.
The zoo's diverse array of invertebrates must also be accounted for in the inventory, which is a zoo license requirement.
This includes a new thriving hive of honey bees - happy to be counted as one to avoid counting dozens of busy bees on the move.
Once complete, the counts will be shared with other zoos around the world - through a database called ZIMS Species360 - where they will be used to help manage global breeding programs for endangered animals. | BGNES
