The cause of a fire that ripped through parts of London Zoo, killing four meerkats and an aardvark, remains a mystery as the yearly stocktake gets under way.
The annual event, in which more than 19,000 individual animals are counted, was delayed by more than a month after meerkat brothers Robbie, Norman, Billy and Nigel and aardvark Misha died in the blaze on December 23.
Some 70 firefighters tackled the flames which took hold of the Animal Adventure area, cafe, petting zoo and gift shop, leaving nine people injured, including one person who was taken to hospital.
The cause of a fire that ripped through parts of London Zoo in December remains a mystery as the annual stocktake gets under way. Pictured: Firefighters battling the blaze
Brothers Robbie, Norman, Billy and Nigel, who were born at the zoo in 2011, were killed when a blaze devastated the attraction in December
Misha, an aardvark, was also killed in the blaze
An Asiatic Lion posed next to the stocktake board today as the annual even got under way
The stocktake sees more than 19,000 individual animals counted. Humbolt penguins were pictured swimming in their enclosure today while being counted
Mark Haben, zoological manager at Zoological Society of London (ZSL), said the incident had brought staff at the zoo together in preparation for the new breeding season.
He told the Press Association: ‘A couple of months in, it’s still early days for us and we don’t know the cause of the fire, so it’s early days for us to speculate and there’s still an ongoing investigation.
‘Anything like that has an impact and it’s very upsetting for everyone who works here.
‘But the wider impact is that it has brought everyone together and really allowed us all to support each other, and really focus on our animal breeding for this year.’
He added: ‘The whole zoo has pulled together, the Society pulled together and we’re really gearing up for a successful 2018.’
The stocktake was supposed to begin in January but was postponed in the wake of the devastating fire in December
Around 1.2 million visitors passed through London Zoo’s gates last year. Today, staff were seen counting llamas during the annual stocktake
The fire that ripped through parts of the zoo killed five animals and delayed the annual stocktake. Pictured: Australian Golden Silk Orb Weaver spider today
The zoo reopened on Christmas Eve, but the stocktake – scheduled to take place on January 2 – was postponed until Wednesday to ‘get more staff involved’ and give the zoo more planning time.
With more than 700 species to be counted across animals including bugs, lions, penguins and fish, the process will continue throughout the week.
Zookeepers try to make the day as ‘relatively positive’ for the 19,289 animals, by counting them during their feeding time and taking a microchip reading off them.
The attraction, which brought in 1.2 million visitors in 2016, expects to welcome more animal births following a ‘very successful’ breeding season last year which ended with the birth of an okapi, named after Meghan Markle.
A zoo worker counts jellyfish at London Zoo today as the annual stocktake gets under way. The exercise monitors the 850 species at the attraction
Zookeepers try to make the day as ‘relatively positive’ for the 19,289 animals – including these penguins – by counting them during their feeding time and taking a microchip reading off them
A lemur was pictured at the zoo today, less than two months after a fire ripped through parts of the complex