2006 was a good year for important breeding events. We can’t list every single one (as we’d be here for a while) but some of the most important include the rhinoceros hornbill and the first successful breeding of the hyacinthine macaw. These occasions highlighted the skills and dedication of our bird team. The mammal teams also had reason to celebrate as a Rothschild giraffe named Molly and a male Asian elephant also joined the zoo collection. The elephant was named Raman by viewers of the BBC’s Blue Peter programme, continuing their long-standing support for our Asian elephants. (Blue Peter audiences named Jubilee, the first Asian elephant to be born in the UK, when he was born at the zoo in 1977.)Critically endangered Egyptian tortoises also hatched at the zoo – they hatch at about the size of a 50p coin. They were named after England footballers, as it was just before the World Cup, which generated a lot of media attention nationwide and enabled us to highlight the plight of this species to a bigger audience.