Picture gallery: Keeping count of creatures great and small at Africa Alive! in Kessingland

They hand-rear giraffes and give lions their breakfast, but keepers at Africa Alive! near Kessingland are busy with one of their biggest challenges.

At the start of each year, staff count every single animal in the park, to update their records and see what animals they need to breed in the coming year.

Keeper Zoe Nunn, 26, said: 'The stocktake is really useful because we have a good look at the animals as we go.

'We do it bit by bit, it normally takes a couple of days and each keeper does their own section of the park.

'Obviously it's a lot easier to tell the bigger animals apart, but we also have to count the mice, bats and cockroaches.'

The park has more than 350 millipedes, 69 black-cheeked love birds, 19 Egyptian fruit bats and seven lions.