Dudley Zoological Gardens Dudley Zoological Gardens in 2019

Cornwall, but I've seen it in Devon too.

 

If they want to keep the badgers close to the sett and not wandering around too much all they have to do is put Peanuts and milk out every other night and they won't move too far from the sett this is a tried and tested way of keeping them away from crops and stop them digging up your gardens.

 

It seems to work around were I live as there are 4 setts close by and no-one who feeds the badgers ever gets any problems with them must admit the milk is watered down quite a bit what I put out.

 

Visited yesterday, my first visit since November last year.

It was cloudy with light breeze throughout, but the temperature was quite mild so nearly all the animals were showing well.

On arrival the car park seemed unusually busy for a week day. It turns out that a section of it is allocated to students from the nearby college during the week but we were still able to find a space no problem at all.

Upon stepping into the entrance building we saw that it was packed full of school children and their parents. However, they were apparently a group of home schoolers on a collective trip together, waiting to be taken up to the classroom in the discovery centre, so we made our way past them to the tills and managed to enter the zoo quite quickly.

I saw two Sulawesi Crested macaques in the former gelada breeding group enclosure to the right of the chairlift. Quite unusual seeing them in what is a very steep and rocky grass paddock. The grass seems to be recovering very well.

The breeding group of geladas in the macaques' former enclosure, to the left of the chairlift, were staying in their indoor quarters but showing well. They are a nice sized group now, with youngsters of varying ages.

The flamingos were being kept inside due to the breezy conditions but were easily seen thanks to the large viewing windows at the side of their house.

Only saw one snowy owl. I remember years ago when they used to have 3 or 4 in that aviary.

Both burrowing owls were standing together at the front of their aviary which is unusual as the previous pair always used to stand apart, high up at the back of the enclosure.

I saw all 4 of the new Northern hawk-owls. Very striking and unusual looking bird. Not sure why they have 4 in that small ramshackle aviary; surely just the 2 would be better?

I didn't see any howler monkeys but I saw that food had been placed in their house. Upon looking into the outdoor enclosure I saw that the howler monkey house had been disconnected from it. There were also a couple of Sulawesi crested macaques in the outdoor area. No idea what's going on there.

A new structure has been built around the snow leopard house presumably to act as an extra layer of security. I suppose they had to do something as the existing safety measures, despite continuously working thousands of times faultlessly in the decades since the enclosure was built, still managed to fail eventually through human error.

There was a lot of work going on in the lynx on-show indoor area. More climbing structures and ropes have been put up in there which is strange as it wasn't built that long ago and seemed perfectly fine before.

I say this every time but they REALLY need a new giraffe house, and to extend the paddock.

Both binturongs were asleep in the on-show indoor area.

Saw 5 Parma wallabies.

The new lilac-breasted roller was showing nicely.

Counted 3 young Barbary sheep (young as in born this year).

They have a nice sized flock of Waldrapp ibis now.

Counted 7 scarlet macaws and 4 military macaws. No changes to the aviary.

There was a huge amount of construction work going on at the lemur walkthrough. So much so that the entire area was barricaded off including the long winding path down to the zoo's lower level. This meant, once we'd visited all the exhibits around the castle, walking back down through the zoo the way we came in order to get to the chimp exhibit etc..

According to the orangutan fundraising area, as of 28th Feb 2019 they have raised £424,648 for the new enclosure.

The baby gibbon is now moving independently and was busy play fighting with one of its older siblings. I was wondering if the breeding pair, who have done so well, will be retired and stay in their enclosure after the new orang enclosure is constructed. Perhaps then one of their offspring will go into the new orang enclosure instead and be joined by a mate to form a new breeding pair.

The male sealion and one of the females had been separated off from the other females.

No changes to the Castle Creatures exhibit.

The birds of prey display was excellent; packed full of interesting info and it drew a decent crowd. Only a male Harris hawk as the other birds are still going through their moult and being brought back up to speed with their training after the winter. The bird flew very well. The handler was demonstrating the bird's behaviour and flight path by flying it to and from the castle walls and around the ruins.

The only food and drink outlet I saw open all visit was the expensive Queen Mary canteen.

Counted 8 extremely active/playful capuchins. They are such a good watch.

Just about saw the twin baby black and white ruffed lemurs.

The back of the discovery centre is still in desperate need of refurbishing/ re-painting.

Some of the wooden posts and handrails in the penguin walkway still need replacing.

Saw both Bennetts wallaby joeys.

Saw the wild badger sett where the cubs had been seen recently. It looks like the main sett is under the old abandoned wallaby enclosure but there are also a few holes that go under the chairlift.

Saw 3 naked mole rats and all 7 chimps.

A line of tape has appeared along the wooded bank above the bear ravine. It is likely to be the intended boundary of the upcoming brown bear exhibit. I expected the perimeter to only go a quarter of the way up the slope, but the fact that it looks to be going three-quarters of the way up is very nice indeed.

The token voting (to decide which animal conservation project the public would like to see the zoo support) looks very even at the moment. The Tasmanian tigers may be marginally ahead.

 

The one-acre lemur walkthrough, which has recently undergone a £100,000 revamp, will reopen on Saturday.

A cracking Easter! - Dudley Zoological Gardens

 

??? *devils*


Anyway...

The lemur walkthrough has now been reopened after an extensive overhaul.

The changes include:

• new signage.
• large new balcony areas.
• an information hut explaining the work carried out by the Lemur Conservation Association (AEECL) which the zoo helps fund.
• a spruce up of the large pool and waterfall.
• a major cut back of the foliage to allow for regrowth.

However, the most significant change is the huge improvement to the paths which now appear to be smooth tarmac. The paths in the lemur walkthrough used to be extremely difficult for visitors with pushchairs, wheelchairs, and mobility scooters etc. to use, so these changes will make a big difference to people's visits.



Lemur Wood reopens! - Dudley Zoological Gardens


PS: I forgot to mention in the review of my recent visit that the enclosure with the large pool in the lorikeet walkthrough now contains Meller's ducks.

 

It's certainly opened it out and I agree the new paths will make it much more accessible for people with pushchairs, wheelchairs and scooters. My first impression is that it looks a little new and stark at the moment but I'm sure that, once the vegetation starts to grow back, the effect will be softened.

 

A new guidebook will go on sale in the next few weeks, priced at £3.00
Your guide to DZG! - Dudley Zoological Gardens

 

Do they still have that pair of Red ruffed lemurs inside the Monkey House right now? I'd imagine that's where they are mainly kept from now on since they aren't housed in Lemur Wood anymore (or at least they haven't been for quite a long time, unless they never had them in there to begin with)

 

They do still have the two red-ruffed lemurs in the small primate house. They are two males called Hardy and Nelson. They are approximately 14 years old and were hand reared by staff after they were abandoned by their mother.

I don't think there have ever been red-ruffed lemurs in the lemur walkthrough. Just ring-tailed, black-and-white ruffed, collared and, up until recently, black.

 

I thought the Red Ruffed Lemurs were rescued from a home along with 2 Ring Tailed lemurs.

 

Happy 10th birthday, boys! - Dudley Zoological Gardens

 

oop's the keepers are wrong again.

 

It looks like a small number of sad, incredibly stupid people, who don't really have any purpose in life and just want to feel part of a group, are planning an anti-zoo protest outside Dudley zoo on Monday. Of course they are manipulating naïve impressionable people by using photos from the 1930s as well as photos that are nothing to do with the zoo.

It was this time last year that the nearby Birmingham Wildlife Park was vandalised.

I wonder how many endangered animals these protesters have bred, how many people they've educated (with genuine facts), and how much money they've donated to conservation projects.

They have somehow got it into their heads that they are helping animals when in actual fact their ignorant backwards thinking is doing nothing of the sort.

 

Just had a look, they’re using photos from the polar bears that left the zoo in the eighties!

They’re also protesting because the zoo captures animals from the wild (it bloody doesn’t) and that animals are trained to do tricks, which is firstly not cruel in any way and secondly not something that Dudley does unless we’re counting flying birds of prey?

 

The photo I saw shows the zoo's two original polar bears from 1937, people in 1930s clothing and is in black and white... hilarious!

Hopefully BWP and DZG will have some sort of police presence to control these fools.

 

I don't know this, but I would suggest that the likelihood of Dudley not having exhibited any wild-caught animals in, say, the past decade is very small.

 

Maybe, maybe not, but they certainly haven't captured or displayed any Polar Bears in over 30 years, which totally discredits their 'campaign' surely !?