Vet viewing gallery planned as London Zoo marks 200 years

The public will be able to watch penguin health checks and frog X-rays in a new £20m wildlife health centre, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has said as it marks its 200th anniversary. The centre at London Zoo in Regent's Park, central London, is being funded by an anonymous donation that is the biggest in conservation charity ZSL's 200-year history. It will bring veterinary science to the public with the UK's first vet hospital viewing gallery for visitors. The facility will deliver care for zoo animals, monitor emerging diseases in the wild and undertake conservation work such as health-checking wildlife including hazel dormice before releases into the wild. Visitors will also be able to see science research such as porpoise and dolphin autopsies following strandings around the coast of England and Wales, and disease surveillance including the pre-release checks done on hazel dormice before they are released in reintroduction projects in woods around the country. The centre will also expand existing work to teach wildlife vets and conservation scientists with postgraduate training, specialist training and field-based training in biodiversity hotspots, ZSL said. The organis