Every year London Zoo has to carry out a stocktake of all its exhibits. The penguins dutifully lined up for the 2007 stocktake on Thursday.

Keeper Mark Tinsley and a leaf insect during the head count of each of the 600 different species at London Zoo.

The stocktake, which involved mammal keeper Marie Whatmough and the meerkats she helps look after, is essential for the zoo to keep its licence.

Windy weather left this meerkat needing to keep warm while waiting his turn to be counted during the stocktake at the zoo in Regent's Park.

This meerkat offered a helping paw during the stocktake, which will reveal the full extent of London Zoo's growth during 2006.

Last year's stocktake revealed the zoo was home to 5,674 animals, about 7,000 invertebrates and an additional 583 invertebrate colonies.

Keeper Kay Foley may have found her penguins easier to count than some of the zoo's other exhibits, such as the hundreds of tropical butterflies and moths.

New additions to the zoo in the past year included five baby penguins, six baby otters and a pack of African wild hunting dogs.