Dudley Zoological Gardens Dudley Zoological Gardens in 2017

It was meant to say Cougar but I did like the cartoon from TLD. Cobra in the enclosure would possibly be easier to see then the Badgers lol.

 

Was trying to work out what you intended to type - Cougar makes a lot more sense than my guess of 'cheetah' !

 

Firstly, Joe Public would much rather see Lions and, secondly, I can't see the Tiger enclosure holding Jaguar for long without significant changes, not far short of a total rebuild (i.e. even if there was the will there'd be no advantage spending a load of money swapping one big cat species for a less popular one).

 

Visited today. My 4th visit of the year.

I saw both great grey owls and only one snowy owl.

Two Sulawesi macaques were in with the howler monkeys. Guessing these are new arrivals waiting to go into the main enclosure and also the reason why the mara are back in with the tapirs. Also, for some reason there are a couple of howler monkeys in one half of the capuchin house. Hopefully another reshuffle is imminent.

Didn't see Inca (Asiatic black bear) but noticed that the foliage in her enclosure has grown a lot, which is odd when you think that the ground is just a few metres of wood chippings used to fill the old polar bear pool.

Very pleased to see that the extension to the snow leopard enclosure is well underway. It will definitely double their existing space. Looking forward to seeing how they decide to landscape it. Apparently a raised viewing area the other side of the path will also be built.

It was good to see the smart new tiger climbing frame. It's pretty much the same as the old one, which was showing its age, but with a few alterations. Credit to the hard work of the keepers who have been staying after hours to build it for the past month.

The lynx were making good use of the extension to their house.

No change to the triple parrot aviaries, the Queen Mary aviary or the rest of the farmyard yet.

Did not see any otters. Guess the older siblings have moved to another collection by now and the parents were with the new cubs in the den at the top of the enclosure.

I agree that the food in the Queen Mary restaurant is a tad expensive, but I'd say that the food/drink is far better quality that you get from most other places.

With regards to there being no lion births at the zoo for some time. Do we even know if the zoo is trying for cubs? Perhaps their individuals are over-represented or maybe the females are on the older side now?

I saw all four orangs. Can't believe how much the young female (Sprout) has grown since my last visit. Always interesting to see the two adult males side by side when in their respective outdoor enclosures. Don't know how accurate it is, but the fundraising display area next to the house says they have so far raised 200k of their 800k target to build a new enclosure.

Castle creatures. I haven't bothered to go in there for a while but I think they need to start again. I don't particularly go to a zoo to see house spider, bluebottle (high turnover?), earthworm, snail and leech enclosures, but all appeared empty to me and the rat and mice enclosures were a tad too full and not at all appealing. You're also not fooling anyone with a snail exhibit that's just full of empty shells and a plastic model of snail! There was also a pretty strong smell throughout. Finally, the bats. The second part of the bat enclosure looked like it had been shut down, the enclosure and the visitors area was completely pitch black; you couldn't see a thing and I only saw one Seba's bat in the first part.

As usual the capuchins were a great watch. Their new enclosure still feels impressive to me even now I've seen it a few times. The adults were very active and the youngsters also appear to be doing well.

Walking through the small monkey houses over the years I have occasionally had a fleeting glimpse of a tiny mouse darting across the enclosure floors and squeezing under the access doors to escape. However, today I was shocked to look into the saki monkey house and see 4 very fat rats boldly climbing throughout the enclosure, helping themselves to the food, and two very uneasy looking male sakis. The rats were entering via a large, very obvious, hole they had chewed in the bottom corner of the keeper access door (I saw a smaller rat next door with the cotton top tamarins too). Now I appreciate that every zoo has problems with wild rats and mice (reminded me of the walk-through aviary at Twycross), but to see rats inside the house, when they could so easily be dealt with/prevented, is unacceptable in my opinion; not to mention how relaxed, big and numerous they were. I've never seen this before at Dudley and hopefully it's a one-off, but sort it out quickly DZG, it's not exactly great for public image.

I went to the birds of prey display, which was excellent and really enjoyable. Only a burrowing owl (a first in a display for me and a real character) and the usual harris hawk, but the talk was top-notch and the birds displayed really well.

The reptile house was looking good as usual.

Unfortunately, I reached the new 'farm barn' during its closed hours again. However, I looked through the entrance door windows and saw that a lot of new structures/ exhibits have been built in there since my last visit. I didn't fancy hanging around for an hour for it to open, but will aim to go in and have a look around to see exactly what's in there on my next visit.

Finally, it looks like the tigers are almost certain to win the vote now. It has already been discussed at length, but realistically the zoo needs money and I have to admit that only the bear option will bring that (even though they're spending 250k!).

 

Benji (male Bornean orang) turned 40 today.

He was born in 1977 at Duisburg zoo, Germany.
In 1978 he transferred to Wuppertal zoo, Germany.
In 1994 he moved to Dublin zoo, Ireland.
And in 1996 he moved to Dudley, UK.

Benji's 40! - Dudley Zoological Gardens

 

Six Red-breasted geese and four Cinnamon teals have joined the collection after arriving from Newquay Zoo and Exmoor Zoo.

New birds fly in! - Dudley Zoological Gardens

 

Had a little visit this week and saw that the new orang enclosure will have lar gibbon, apologies if this has been posted but I went a few pages back and didn't see anything. I have pictures of the poster if this is news.

A keeper said that they hoped this would make the orangs more active as currently their default facial expressions are causing visitors to complain they look sad. I also heard that they have long term plans to introduce a very interesting new species, but there's so much to do with their current enclosures that it was very far away.

Bit sad that the discovery centre has been totally got rid of, it's just party/education rooms now and it's not coming back. All animals are off show permanently except for Charlie the parrot, who can be seen through a window.

Finally, the 'viewing' into the old bear dens was impossible as the condensation inside made the glass opaque. Bit sad as I was looking forward to that but exploring the tecton was nice anyway.

 

They announced it back in July. See post #174. It will great to see the orangs and gibbons interacting. It will also be interesting to what happens to the gibbon's rather nice exhibit.

Very intriguing. However, like many zoos, Dudley has to balance keeping the collection fresh and attracting visitors with improving the existing enclosures.

I haven't been able to go in there yet, but I'm pretty sure that everything from the old, highly popular, discovery centre will be going into the new farm barn. I still think they may have missed a trick by calling it a farm barn and not a new improved discovery centre. There really should be a sign on the old door explaining where everything has gone.

 

The only animals that have gone from the discovery centre to the barn are axolotl and siren. I have been told that all the other animals are to stay off show permanently and will only be used for education and shows.

I really thought that the discovery centre was just having a refurb, I’m really surprised that they’ve just scrapped the whole thing. No idea why they need one room for talks, one for parties and one for school groups.

 

Another zoo replacing animals with visitor facilities.

 

A lot of vivariums have been built in the new 'farm barn'; a similar number to what was in the old discovery centre. It can't just be axolotl and siren going in there.

While the old discovery centre was up and running the zoo still kept a small number of animals permanently off-show for use in education shows only. All those animals that were on-show in the old discovery centre can't all now be being used for those same education shows as well.


(the above photo shows the barn interior before its completed state).

 

Jill the raven has returned to Welsh Mountain Zoo to be paired with a male raven. A new owl species will soon be joining the collection.
Jill returns to Wales - Dudley Zoological Gardens

 

I didn't realise you could view the inside quarters of the Bear enclosure? I thought it was fenced off now and you can only see her when she is out ?

 

You can't access the indoors of the current bear enclosure but Devi is talking about the old bear ravine near the chimps and lorikeet walk-through.

 

I don’t know what else to tell you, the enclosures in the barn are filled, I asked if the discovery centre animals had been moved there, they said no, only the sirens and axolotls, the rest were now going to stay off show.

 

Yes I am. Old bear dens have had windows put on top. The windows are kind of pointless when it’s raining as you can’t see through at all. I was a bit disappointed really. Possibly less of an issue if it’s dry.

 

So here is the million dollar question; what's in the barn enclosures? Surely it can't be all sirens and axolotls?

 

I didn't think there was anything in the old Bear Ravine now ?

 

There are no bears or any animals at all in the old bear ravine Tecton dens. They have been deemed unsuitable for modern use.

The windows are there purely so you can look down and see what the old dens looked like.

 

Just saw it posted on their FB page. Bit of a shame for me since I haven't seen her on my previous visits this year (I'm hoping they will extend the old Raven aviary depending on which owl species they will be introducing to the collection)

Well, guess this marks the end of DZG keeping Ravens in their bird collection.

Fingers crossed for the new owls!