An ultrasound 'pod' has been constructed in the sea lion enclosure. It keeps vets out of sight of the animals and gives them somewhere dark to enable them to monitor the sonogram whilst carrying out ultrasound scans on the zoo's female sea lions. Keepers design Ultra Pod – Dudley Zoo and Castle
Planning documents for the new bear enclosure have been uploaded to the Dudley council website if anyone wants to take a look. They look really good, especially the fence going right to the top of the wooded hillside, but keep in mind that none of it is set in stone yet.
The zoo has seen a record breaking 11,688 visitors over the month of January 2020, which is a 47% increase on January last year. Wow! What a January! – Dudley Zoo and Castle
It sounds like the 30ft "lemur" statue is going in the lemur walkthrough, which is exactly what I feared. I'd hoped they would stick it in the car park. Showing the love for lemurs! – Dudley Zoo and Castle It is being unveiled to the public later today.
The statue has been installed and officially unveiled. Leap of Faith revealed! – Dudley Zoo and Castle To be honest, despite my initial reservations, now that it has been placed on a podium to look mid-flight and painted/shaded to look more like a ring-tailed lemur, I think it looks good.
According to an article in local media, Zoo Bojnice will send 4 brown bears to Dudley zoo soon. Female Žofia (2017), males Fedor (2017), Kubo (2017) and Šimon (?). All of them are wild-born. Zoo Bojnice, state-owned and most popular zoo in Slovakia, serves also as a station for injured and orphaned bears from the whole country (Slovakia has a healthy population of circa 1000 Carpathian brown bears). Unfortunately, their enclosure is very small and ugly and they are looking for other places willing to give refuge to at least part of their animals that could not be released back into wildness. This group for Dudley also includes two cubs (Žofia, Kubo) of female Inga/Ingrid who was shot and it created some public outcry. The story of a bear named Inga has a sad ending - spectator.sme.sk
I did some digging and I think this video shows the 2 cubs with their mother Inga, in city park in popular tourist resort. Brown bears living in Slovakia are among smallest in size, but good climbers.
According to the zoo's social media, they are currently extending the reindeer paddock to incorporate the grassy tree-lined bank at the rear, which the reindeer will be allowed to use during the summer months. Photo: Security Check Required I do wonder whether this is in preparation for the all-female reindeer herd being replaced with the zoo's African wild dogs. They could make a really huge, impressive wild dog enclosure by merging it with the peccary enclosure too. However, I'm not certain they'd be allowed to build an African wild dog proof fence that close to the castle.
Try the Bush dog enclosure for the wild dog move. (they used to keep manned wolf in this enclosure) Bush dogs then moved to a smaller exhibit made for them.
Far too small and the housing wouldn't be suitable either. There also isn't enough room there to construct any suitable housing.
Just a warning that the Under 5's Day is being held on Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th June this year. Under 5’s Day Picnic Party – Dudley Zoo and Castle Zoo nerds should avoid at all costs!
As someone who inadvertently attended on one of last year's under 5's days, I can attest to the sheer mayhem! I have honestly never seen so many pushchairs or buggies in one place before. Avoid if you can (or maybe visit BWCP instead whilst everyone is at Dudley )
Excellent news - Historic England have finally replied to the zoo's planning application for the new bear enclosure and state they have no objections to the application.
