All creatures great and small counted by animal keepers in annual stock take
Animal keepers at two popular attractions have had a busy start to the year in completing their annual animal stock take.
Every year, each creature great and small must be counted at Dudley Zoo and West Midland Safari Park (WMSP).
Head of wildlife at WMSP, Angela Potter, said: "We have 118 species of animals with over 1,000 individuals, and this is the time of year that we carry out the annual count of them all, big and small.
"Most are counted as individuals such as our eight white rhinos, 48 blackbuck, our giraffe herd which had the addition of two lovely calves born in 2022, Kingsley and Kris, and even our flock of lorikeets whose numbers soared to 100, with 24 chicks hatching during the last year.
"Some of our invertebrate species, such as the leafcutter ants and the cockroaches are counted as colonies, although keepers do a census count on these groups too.
"Our keepers count our animals on a daily basis anyway, to ensure they are all healthy and well, but this annual audit, which takes place in January, is something that each zoo must undertake as part of our zoo licence requirements."
Last year, the safari park in Bewdley welcomed some new animals into its collection, which were all included in the numbers for this year.
"This includes a male red panda, Sanka, as a mate for Mei Lin, a Sumatran tiger female, Dourga, as a new partner for our male Nakal and three female meerkats, which set up a new breeding group with male Monty," said Angela.
"The meerkats already have produced three offspring and we look forward to more new arrivals in 2023."
At Dudley Zoo, it has also been a busy week for the attraction’s zoo keepers.
They have to legally tot up every invertebrate, bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian living across the 40-acre Castle Hill site as part of its zoo licensing requirements.
And for the likes of Bornean orangutan babies, Joe and Jim, Giant anteater, Gizmo, Linne’s two-toed sloth, Button and baby binturong, Niffler, it’s their first time being included in the zoo's official numbers.
DZC curator Richard Brown, said: “We’ve had a fabulous 12 months of notable births, which have also included two black swans, five naked mole rats, two Bactrian camels, two red-tailed green rat snakes, as well as the addition of a brand new species for the zoo, with the arrival of Helga the wolverine, so there are lots of new faces to include in the census this year.”
Once keepers have counted all animals on their section, the information will be collated and inputted into the global animal online database, Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) by DZC registrar Nicola Wright, who will also submit a full report to the local authority.
Nicola said: “Keepers have to keep a daily count of their animals, but the annual stocktake at the start of a new year is a great confirmation exercise to make sure all of our inventory records, which we update throughout the year, are correct.
“We’re currently tallying more than 2,000 individual animals on site, consisting of 247 species, of which 198 are listed on the IUCN Red List of threatened species."
