King Charles gives ‘well behaved’ penguin a health check and feeds a tortoise at zoo during London heatwave

The royals have braved the UK heatwave and ventured out, with King Charles and Queen Camilla visiting a London zoo and Prince William trying his hand at mini golf in a seaside town.

During the King’s visit, which celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Zoological Society of London conservation charity, the king and queen paused to meet a Galápagos tortoise named Polly and help feed her some snacks.

The 31-year-old tortoise was presented with a watermelon decorated with the number 200 and flowers.

Using metal tongs, the Queen fed some of the greenery to Polly while the King offered her some leaves by hand.

Polly largely ignored the King’s offering prompting Charles to jokingly ask her keeper whether the tortoise was on a “diet”.

King Charles also used a stethoscope to help give a “very well behaved” penguin a health check during a trip to London Zoo.

The pair joined zoo vet Stefan Saverimuttu as he checked over a Humboldt penguin during the visit in Camden on Thursday.

Dozens of penguins, about 60cm tall, gathered to greet the royals as the couple approached their enclosure.

Crouching down, Charles used a red stethoscope to check the heartbeat of a penguin named Lannister as the bird patiently sat perched on a rock.

Camilla, using a blue stethoscope, also bent down to join in.

“Lannister sounded perfect and Lannister was very well behaved for the King and the Queen,” Saverimutu said.

“They’re very endearing,” the King said about the birds.

Asked how the couple’s veterinary skills had been, the vet said Charles and Camilla had taken to it “very well”.

“Both of them were really enthusiastic about the penguins,” he added.

“Penguins have a bit of a beak on them so I think if you’ve never met one before, they might be a bit intimidating, but neither the King or the Queen was intimidated in the slightest and they went straight in and gave it a go and they did really well.”

The pair also took part in laser training exercises used to encourage and observe movements in the penguins including swimming and diving.

The laser pointers mimic the sparkling scales of fish, which penguins are known to chase, and allow vets to spot any health concerns.

Standing next to a glass wall with a view into the blue pool, Charles and Camilla tried unsuccessfully for a couple of minutes to capture the penguins’ attention.

One penguin eventually swam up to the King’s laser pointer as he laughed and exclaimed: “That’s the only one that’s noticing.”

Charles wore a blue suit with an animal-themed tie and sunglasses while Camilla, carrying a cream parasol, chose a white Fiona Clare dress adorned with wildlife including elephants and deer.

In the zoo’s Tiny Giants area, Charles spoke to staff about the conservation work done by the ZSL to protect Partula tree snails from extinction after they were wiped out by an invasive carnivorous snail species.

Asked whether he would like to paint one of the tiny creatures, the King laughed and said: “I’ve painted a few things in my time but never a snail.”

Holding a small paint brush, Charles placed a dot of purple paint on two of the snail’s shells which will help to track them once they are released into the wild in French Polynesia.

“So this is special snail varnish is it?” the King joked.

The visit was Charles’ first tour of the zoo as the ZSL’s patron, having visited the attraction for the first time as a one-year-old to see Brumas, a new born polar bear cub.

Since 1828, every monarch has been patron of the society.

The zoo was founded by the ZSL that year in London’s Regent’s Park, becoming the world’s first scientific zoo.

Meanwhile, Prince William has played a round of mini-golf and spoken to fishermen about the effects of warmer seas during a visit to a seaside town.

The Prince of Wales arrived via a funicular railway to greet a crowd of people who had waited in sweltering heat to see him in Hastings, East Sussex, about midday on Thursday.

After telling them it was his first visit to the town, the prince encouraged the waiting children to cool down and “make a big splash” in the sea.

William tested his putting skills at Hastings Adventure Miniature Golf, where the World Crazy Golf Championships 2026 took place last month.

He played three holes against Murray Thompson, one of the top-ranked mini-golfers in the United Kingdom, and met local players David and Marian Harley, who took up the game in their retirement.

Admiring the course next to the seafront, William told them: “If this is on your doorstep you’ve got to use it.”

Watching Thompson sink three consecutive hole-in-ones, the prince joked “you make it look so easy,” as his opponent celebrated.

William also spoke to local fishermen, a netmaker and the curator of a Hastings museum during his visit to the historic port that is reportedly home to the largest beach-launched fishing fleet in the United Kingdom.

Boarding a fishing boat named Senlac Jack, he asked: “What’s your theory on why there’s no fish?”

He was told that warmer seas and bigger boats were among the reasons while netmaker Steven Gurka added that improved technology and overfishing were also factors.

Gurka said he had watched fishermen return to port on Wednesday without enough fish to sell.

The Met Office warned that the long-lasting marine heatwave across UK waters for much of 2026 could reach extreme levels this week, which could significantly affect ecosystems and wildlife.

Yasmine Ornsby gave the prince a book called Generations about the histories of fisherfolk from the area and an illustrated tea towel.

William was also given a silver shell by the Winkle Club, a local charity.

Members of the club are said to carry the shells in their pockets and can be asked by fellow members to “winkle up” to prove their membership by displaying the shells.

William was told his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and Winston Churchill were among the previous honorary members of the Winkle Club.