Stocktaking

Fancy a bit of stocktaking?
I know it`s quite customary for shops, warehouses, factories, depots and other places to have annual or regular stocktakes, where they count everything they have. But, I heard of something the other day that caused me to stop and `take stock`……

A zoo was going to do a stock take, and count all their creatures but as well as just counting them, they were going to list how many male and how many female of each species they`d got. Now, I can understand how they could count a cage of sleeping lions or tigers, or an enclosure of penguins – so long as they stood still!, but how, I wondered, does one count birds in an aviary that are constantly flying too and fro, and what about the stick insects and tiny insects no doubt hiding amongst foliage in their tanks, how does one count them, let alone decide if they are male or female!

And, further to that, what happens if the count of giraffes doesn`t match the quantity they think they should have? Or if they are a tarantula short…. do they put out an alert and go looking for it?

It puts a whole new meaning on the word Stock taking doesn`t it?