lima
ZOO keepers had their work cut out as they tried to carry out the annual head count to meet their licensing obligations.
Chloe Inskip, a conservation research assistant at Chester Zoo, somehow managed to arrange a single file roll call, after being given the task of carrying out the audit in the ring-tailed lemur enclosure.
She eventually managed to count up 37 of the primates, whose animated cousins starred in the Dreamworks cartoon Madagascar.
Miss Inskip admits things became even more tricky when she put leaf cutter ants under the magnifying glass.
An exact stock take was impossible but the South American natives are breeding well.
This has been a bumper year for the zoo, with scores of new species for visitors to see.
Among the most celebrated was Tejas, the lion cub whose mother rejected him at birth. He stole the hearts of the nation in Channel Five’s Zoo Days, but this will be his first and last inclusion in the stock take as he moves to France on January 15.
Zoo spokeswoman Rachel Ashton said: “He needs to live with lady lions as he was rejected at birth. He needs socialisation and later breeding opportunities.
“The cameras will follow him on his journey to the continent in Zoo Days.”
Other new arrivals include Tuang, an orangutan who will soon be out off quarantine and the main attraction at Realm of the Red Ape.
Keepers were also pleased that Kepala, the zoo’s first Sumatran tiger in 21 years, has settled so well with his Bengali relatives. Komodo dragons, red pandas, four gibbons and another four critically endangered Visayan water pigs have also swelled the numbers this year.
The count is all part of a process keepers have to go through to comply with the Zoo Licensing Act 1981.
Next year Ms Inskip and her colleagues will be looking at auditing the fly away occupants of a new Butterfly House due to be completed this summer.
Staff hope these new arrivals attract even more than the 1.2 million visitors in 2007.
