Animals large and small were weighed at London Zoo during their famous annual weigh-in.
From ferocious lions to tiny meerkats: all the zoo’s residents are checked annually.
By performing weight checks and measurements, employees can not only monitor the welfare of the animals, but also detect pregnancies.
Furthermore, it provides important information about the care of these animals, but also about the care of their species. Many of these animals are threatened with extinction in the wild and are part of breeding programs to protect the species.
The weight and dimensions of the animals are loaded into a shared database, the Zoological Information Management System.
This allows conservationists around the world to compare vital information on thousands of endangered species.
The zoo’s famous penguins seem extremely excited to be weighed and measured by the staff
Bhanu, an Asiatic lion, reacts in his enclosure during the annual weigh-in at London Zoo
A camel also joins in the weighing, looking at its handler’s clipboard
Penguin keeper Jess Ray weighs Humboldt penguins, but a cheeky one climbs on her leg
Camel handler Mick Tiley weighs and keeps a close eye on Neomie the camel
A hairy mangalitsa pig demands snacks before being weighed by staff
The zoo’s lion cubs frolic around the unfamiliar sign that shows visitors their weight
It seems as if the cubs themselves are studying the results of the weighing
The zoo has been very busy, but the annual event came just hours after a Banksy artwork had to be removed for safety reasons.
The artwork, which shows a gorilla lifting a hatch and letting several birds and a seal escape, has been replaced with a replica.
A nearby sign reads “Banksy woz ere” and offers an apology to disappointed fans of the street artist.
The painting at the entrance to the zoo was the ninth and final work in a series of images of animals throughout the capital.
Banksy’s latest work featured a gorilla letting other zoo animals escape
When the artwork was first discovered, zoo staff used a plexiglass cover to “protect it from the glare of the sun.”
London Zoo responded to the backlash on a social media post announcing the removal: “We are still working out exactly what we will do with the artwork, but we are keen to preserve this moment in our history in a good way.”
Two other works in the series, including the silhouettes of elephants in Edith Grove in Chelsea, were defaced and another was stolen within hours of being installed.
Since August 5, Banksy’s artworks in London include a rhinoceros sitting on a silver Nissan Micra with a traffic cone on the bonnet on Westmoor Street in Charlton, a police station in Ludgate Hill that has been converted into a giant aquarium full of piranhas, and a pelican bending down to scoop up a fish on the sign outside Bonner’s Fish Bar in Walthamstow.