PREVIEW

More than 150 penguins at Edinburgh Zoo have received their annual vaccinations, with vets and keepers from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) carrying out individual jabs, microchip checks, and full health assessments across three species.

Hannah Brazier, an RZSS veterinary nurse, said: “It takes a lot of planning and a big team effort to vaccinate all of our penguins. It feels great at the end of the day though. When it came to it, the hardest thing to deal with was the wind and rain!”

The zoo is home to king, Northern rockhopper and gentoo penguins, with gentoo making up the largest share of the colony. The group includes the internationally known Major General Sir Nils Olav, a king penguin who holds a series of honorary titles in the Norwegian military, and Kevin, a mischievous gentoo previously banned from the zoo’s Wee Waddle event for nipping visitors’ shoelaces.

The Northern rockhopper, identifiable by its yellow crest and red eyes, is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. RZSS has been involved in conservation work for the species, including gene sequencing at its WildGenes laboratory.

Visitors can see the penguins in what the zoo describes as Europe’s largest outdoor penguin pool, with tickets available to book online. High-resolution images and video of the vaccinations have been made available by RZSS.