Britain’s head of state King Charles III on Thursday donned sunglasses as he braved a heatwave to visit penguins and a giant tortoise at London Zoo.<\/p>\n
Wearing his usual pinstripe suit with a pair of reflective shades, Charles watched his wife Queen Camilla feed a plant to Polly, a 32-year-old giant Galapagos tortoise, as crowds cheered.<\/p>\n
The king and queen also used stethoscopes to listen to the heartbeat of a Humboldt penguin, while gently holding the bird, as other penguins strolled on a mock beach area nearby and swam in a pool.<\/p>\n
“Lannister sounded perfect and Lannister was very well behaved for the\u00a0king\u00a0and the queen,” zoo vet Stefan Saverimuttu said, referring to the penguin who got a health check.<\/p>\n
“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\u00a0or the queen was intimidated in the slightest.”<\/p>\n
Charles said the birds were “very endearing”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The royals were visiting because the conservation charity behind the zoo, the Royal Zoological Society, was founded two centuries ago in 1826.<\/p>\n
The monarch, who has long espoused environmental causes, is a patron of the charity, now known as ZSL.<\/p>\n
England on Thursday saw temperatures soar above 34C for the eight day this year, the highest number of days at this temperature in a calendar year since records began.<\/p>\n
The king, 77, grimaced in the heat, while Camilla, 78, protected herself from the sun with a small parasol.<\/p>\n
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