Health check of 6,600 animals gets under way at aquarium

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Staff at Sealife London Aquarium have begun their week-long annual health check of all 6,600 animals in their care.

Among other jobs, they have have had to check the teeth and measure the length of each of their 50 sharks, measure the shell of the rather impressive 1.2m long rare green Sea turtle, and log the size of the three-month-old baby hermit crabs and 15 baby seahorses.

Jamie Oliver, Curator at the South Bank attraction, says: "We’re constantly monitoring the health of all of our animals, but after several months of breeding successes it seemed a good time to update the health logs of all of our creatures at once — including our new additions. We've just recently welcomed a new herd of baby seahorses and some tiny poison dart frogs, plus a Gentoo penguin chick, so it’ll be a great opportunity to monitor their progress. It’s a big job, but the dedicated aquarists know their allocated animals very well and can spot changes in their growth and development very quickly."

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