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Have the monkeys been eating too many bananas or the giant tortoises indulging in too many carrots? London Zoo keepers don't spare the animals' blushes as they conduct their annual weigh-in.

How tall or short, fat or thin? London Zoo keepers had their work cut out on Thursday conducting the annual weight and height measurements of all their animals.

It's a monumental task to weigh and measure more than 750 different species, including lions, tigers, penguins and snakes.

First up were the cheeky golden lion headed tamarins, who needed no encouragement to jump all over the specially adapted scales.

Cuddly Tammy the tamandua, or tree ant eater, lumbered along to see what all the fuss was about and happily spent a long time on the scales in front of photographers.

She weighed in at around 19 pounds (8.5 kilos).

[Nicky Jargo, Senior Keeper, London Zoo]:
"She's probably a little bit heavy this morning following all that banana that she had as a treat on the scales, but she's a good healthy weight at the moment."

The heavyweight of the tortoise world, the giant Galapagos tortoise, "Dirk" weighed in as a respectable 371 pounds (168.5 kilos).

A carrot was all that was needed to get Dirk onto the scales, but some creatures are far more difficult to deal with.

[Nicky Jargo, Senior Keeper, London Zoo]:
"Some of the harder ones are some of the flighty animals, so for example some of the smaller birds who don't like to sit still for too long."

The easiest animals are ones who are motivated to anything with the promise of a food treat, but that does mean they are the most likely to be a little red-faced at the rising numbers on the scales during the weigh-in.

The insects are measured rather than weighed.

Jacqueline the tarantula was 4 inches (10 centimeters)...