World Veterinary Day: A peek into how our vets care for flamingos and penguins

Spring has officially sprung, and what better time to shine the spotlight on our incredible veterinary team than World Veterinary Day! To celebrate, we’re joining our vets behind the scenes as they carry out routine health checks on some of our iconic feathered residents, our flamingos and penguins.

Flamboyant Flamingo flock

Just like your cat or dog might visit the vet for an annual check up, our animals at Marwell receive yearly health checks. Today, it’s time for our Greater Flamingo flock.

Dr Caoimnhe Hodgins, Zoo Veterinarian says “This involves a full health-check, beak to toes! We’re checking their heart rate, assessing their feet, and giving them any medication that they might need.

“There are 28 flamingos here at Marwell Zoo, so there is a lot involved! The whole veterinary services team gets involved, from the nurses to the vets, and we even have students too. Thankfully, all the flamingos have passed their health check, and they can go back out with their friends.”

Holiday health checks

You may have seen that our 13 penguins are on holiday from Penguin Cove while we carry out some exciting habitat updates. But before they waddled off to explore their specially designed temporary habitat, each penguin received a full check-up to ensure they were happy and healthy.

Caoimhe, who has been here at Marwell Zoo since November 2023 and (between us) has a soft spot for the penguins, was joined by vet nurses Wendy and George to visit our penguin colony. Each penguin had their mouth, eyes, heart, air sacs, lungs and feet carefully checked.

Ensuring a high standard of animal welfare

Regular health checks allow our amazing team of vets and nurses to ensure that our animals are in tip-top condition. They allow our expert team to monitor any health conditions and our team can intervene early if there are any concerns. The vet team works closely with our keepers, behaviourist, nutritionist, and the rest of the zoo team to maintain excellent standards of health and welfare amongst the amazing variety of animals here at Marwell.

Caoimhe says “My favourite part of working here at the zoo is the variety of species we have the privilege of caring for. On any given day, I could be checking a rhino’s foot and then performing surgery on a 17g skink. No two days are the same, and this keeps the job interesting and challenging.”