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The ring-tailed lemurs are already acting up when we arrive. With the loving, exasperated tone of a parent insisting that their hyperactive toddler is usually far better behaved, the zookeeper explains we are running behind schedule because the lemurs — now cavorting and capering around their enclosure, and occasionally getting up on their hind legs to do a groovy little dance — are taking longer than usual to get into their hutches. Once they finally settle down, some of them are lured onto the scales to be measured, although the antics don’t stop there: one of them tries to snatch some food from the zookeeper’s hand, while his accomplice creeps up behind her and tries to pick her pocket. Welcome to the London Zoo weigh-in, an event equal parts scientific study and media frenzy.
Hungry for more (Photo by Harry Mitchell)
Every year, the zoo weighs and measures over 10,000 animals, which takes several weeks to complete. But today, I am attending a photo-call where, along with representatives from every major photographic agency and media outlets from all over the world, I am to watch a curated selection of weigh-ins: lemurs, tortoises, capybaras, penguins, a giant-hooded katydid and a snail.
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