London zoo kicks off annual weigh-in of animals after longest closure amid pandemic

London Zoo has recently began its annual weigh-in of all the 19,000 animals at the zoo. It's important for the zoo to weigh its animals as it provides zookeepers and staff key information about their health and will also be able to tell if some of the animals are suffering from ‘lockdown blue’ after the zoo remained closed for an extended period of time.

Annual Weigh-in of 19,000 animals

According to reports, it takes the staff at the zoo about a week to weigh all the 19,000 animals at the zoo. On its website, the London Zoo remarked in how "four-month-old otter pups Bubble and Squeak also took to the scales for the first time alongside parents Pip and Matilda, while heavily pregnant okapi Oni - due this autumn - tipped the scales at 288kg, understandably a few kilos heavier than her pre-pregnancy weight of 250kg,".

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The zoo also added how Dolly, the Galapagos tortoise had to be guided to her weigh-in using traffic cones. The information collected is vital to the animals “health and wellbeing”. The information can also be used to detect possible pregnancies in the animals. The 19,000 animals in the zoo’s have to be coaxed and motivated to stand still on the scales so that they are weighed properly and zookeepers use ingenious methods to make it happen.

The London zoo reopened on June 15 but on a limited scale after being closed for three months, the lack of visitors also seems to have a behavioural impact on some of the animals and the weigh-in will also help zookeepers study the effects of the lockdown. This was the longest period the London Zoo was closed since World War 2 and the shutdown and loss of income has severely impacted the zoo, forcing the international conservation charity behind the Zoo for donations and contributions from the public so that it can stay open.

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