WHILE the lucky ones among us enjoyed Valentine’s Day with cards and candle-lit dinners, the amorous exploits of the residents of the Cotswold Wildlife Park have kept keepers on their toes.

Whether it’s affectionate apes or loving lemurs, passions always run high at the park – particularly with the first signs of spring and, with it, the mating season.

With the constant arrival of new cubs, chicks, calves, pups, hatchlings and all manner of other young, staff at the park, near Burford, can lose track of the population.

So to find out exactly how many mouths they have to feed, keepers are engaged in one of the biggest jobs of the year – counting every animal in their care. And with more than 1,259 animals from 269 species it’s no mean feat.

Once the census is complete, the figures are logged on the park’s computer record system called ARKS (Animal Record-Keeping System).

Park spokesman Debbie Ryan said: “The slow-moving sloths and giant tortoise are a breeze when compared to the giant African landsnail youngsters, of which there are several hundred.”

Park curator Jamie Craig said: “We like to keep our animals in natural environments, but these often make good hiding places.

“The birds in particular can catch us out. Our hammerkops build large, elaborate nests and a few years ago we discovered one we didn’t know we had.

“We need to make sure our inventory is up to date, and know what our baseline is before the breeding season gets fully under way.”

So who are the most notorious breeders?

“The Parma wallabies are so busy we have to split them up,” Mr Craig said. “Wallabies can have three young at any one time and are hard to keep apart.

“The meerkats are also reliable and keep themselves ticking over; the lemurs are as regular as clockwork; and once the birds get going, they really churn them out.”

And which beasts are the most reluctant to get together? “We have a critically endangered species of lemur which we would give our right arms to see breed, but which don’t seem to get on well enough to mate.”

And the most romantic? “The cranes,” he says without hesitation. “They are very romantic. They call in unison and do a lot of stylised dancing together, which cements their bond. In Japan they are regarded as symbols of monogamy, fertility and long life, and it’s easy to see why.”