Trip to Dudley Zoo and Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park

It looks like I'll finally be making it up to these two zoos very soon, and it'll be a first visit for both of them! I was wondering if any of the regulars know of any special or unusual animals or species (or buildings!) that are not to be missed?

I don't know much about the Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park, but Dudley looks interesting from a zoo-history-nerd perspective, and I'm looking forward to seeing their Tectons, being familiar as I am with the Tectons at ZSL London Zoo. Otherwise, is Dudley a standard ABC zoo? Although I generally get excited by seeing any species I can't see at London, so Chimps and Orangs are on my must-see list.

I won't be doing the National SeaLife Centre on this trip, as the other days are filled with the cathedral and the botanic gardens. Maybe next time.

 

Thank you for the helpful info @Brum Yes, I think white-lipped peccaries are new, that is good Geladas aren't too common either, don't think I've seen any in a few years.

A loris house would be great, but as I'm going next week, they'd better hurry up and open it! Nocturnal Houses are a big soft-spot of mine, so great to know I'll get to see one next week

Short answer, yes

 

Thank you @Benosaurus for such a thorough outline of the zoo! I've been known to miss bits at even small zoos, so I'll definitely be referring to your walkthrough guide!

and thank you @Angel for the tips. I really do like anteaters, and now they're leaving my local London, I'll be making the most of seeing them at Dudley for sure.

 

Well I'm on the way! Should be in Birmingham at lunchtime. Was planning on going straight to the BWCP but their website isn't great, so asking the locals, do they do food there? It's small so I'm guessing not really. Just so I know whether to grab anything at Birmingham New Street on the way. Thanks all!

 

Thanks @Benosaurus today was a washout, was meant to go to Dudley Zoo but got soaked through just getting to Birmingham New Street! Trying again tomorrow thankfully yesterday was fine for BWCP!

 

All in good time! Short answer, really liked the place

 

Well, my work computer is having a go-slow afternoon, so that has to be a sign that it’s time to put my thoughts on Birmingham onto paper. Some other things in life have overtaken me since this trip just 2 weeks ago, which has given me some brain fog, but hopefully I can remember enough to review the zoos properly

Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park

This was the first zoo of the trip, we got a taxi straight there from Birmingham New Street. Had to give the taxi driver directions though, which did have me a bit worried!

I found this little zoo to be such a lovely place. It’s not big or flashy, but what it does it does well. As a guilty nocturnal house fan, the small nocturnal house was my definite favourite part of the zoo, with a family of very active slow loris (a species I don’t always have great luck with!), brush-tailed bettongs which were a delight to watch, and completely unexpectedly, an unsigned family of douroucoulis! Although I knew there was a Komodo Dragon, a species I’ve seen frequently at London, I’ve never seen one so well displayed or so active. I was also very taken with the active family of capuchins, very inquisitive ASCOs, and the rather lovely little reptile house. I’m not sure I’ve really seen tamarins and marmosets in such big, natural trees before! Something I really like about little zoos like this is that you have the time to really watch the animals and maybe take time to focus on animals I might normally skip past, like the Komodo Dragon, or the Mara. I also managed to see the European Pond Turtles, which pleased me.

There were no-shows of course, binturongs at the back of their house being one (although we could just see a nose), and not a peep from the bamboo lemurs.

One big downside I found was the extensive use of glass, which made viewing and photography a bit difficult, but I can understand why they use it, with families seeming to be their main audience. Also, the maps are out of date (red squirrels have been replaced by parrots for example), which was a little disappointing.

Of course, any visit to a zoo on a quiet school-day will always give it bonus-points in my mind. Walking around this zoo was very pleasant, especially with the little rivers flowing through it. There seems to be a lot of active building work going on, a sign that the zoo isn’t standing still, which I found admirable and very pleasing. I would love to come back when some of the buildings are complete. I hope the zoo can raise the money to repair the spider monkey enclosure which looks very sorry in its fair-damaged state.

All in all, this is a lovely zoo to spend an afternoon, and I feel I have really developed a soft-spot for it

Next up: Dudley Zoo

 

Dudley Zoo

The trip to Dudley Zoo had to be postponed for a day due to torrential rain (thankfully, Birmingham has a very good museum, with an excellent gallery for the Staffordshire Hoard). We took the route outlined by TLD in the UK public transport thread, getting the train from New Street to Tipton, and walking to the zoo past the Black Country Living Museum.

When we got to the zoo, we found the outside to be a sea of families with small children, pushchairs and buggies. So many buggies. NO-ONE WARNED US IT WAS THE UNDER 5’S FAMILY FUN DAY! Dear lord, I’ve never seen so many buggies in my life. This has to be the zoo-nerds worst nightmare, and it did seriously marr the day. Thankfully they all started to disappear after 2pm, but by this point we were quite exhausted and overwhelmed, but made the most of the quiet after the storm.

Putting the hoards of children to one side for now (!), it was very interesting to visit a zoo that was designed as it was, with so many of the original buildings from the Tecton era still in place, and still in use. My favourite exhibit however, has to be one of the first you see on entering the zoo, and that’s the large enclosure for Geladas on the side of the castle mound. It was simple, yet stunning – a hillside, with a fence around it and some climbing frames. Funny how in a zoo with highly stylised Tectons, it would be a simple patch of enclosed scrub that would stay with me most. Animal highlights were of course the geladas, the very active gibbons, the wonderful bush dogs running around like wind-up toys in what I thought was a pretty decent enclosure (although it could have done with more water), the tigers are an impressive pair, the Carpathian lynx, and seeing two big impressive male orangutans. I also don’t think I’ve ever seen Black Rats, which were in the castle, so small and delicate compared with the more usual brown rats. Also got lucky enough to see a Red Panda being target trained and a snow leopard stalking a very brave squirrel in the trees next to the enclosure. The lorikeet walkthrough was a fun one, one of the better ones I’ve been in, and the enclosures in the reptile house were very well done I thought. I liked the Barabary Sheep enclosure, although it was maybe a little on the small side. Actually, I liked this side of the zoo most, between the snow leopards and the new macaw aviary.

There are however downsides at this zoo, both for animals and people. I’m so glad to hear the orang enclosure is going to be extended, it is barely adequate at present, but they’re doing the best they can with the legacy building. The giraffes really don’t have enough room, but can’t really see how it could be expanded. The bird display in the castle was not running on the day we went due to the family even taking over the castle courtyard, which I don’t think had been explained anywhere at all. The zoo’s people facilities are also not great, the loos we used in two separate parts of the zoo, were both awful, the food was poor, and considering this was a special event day in June, none of the snack bars were open. Only two food outlets were open, and of course every family was trying to cram into them. I’m not sure how many of the visitor facility problems were caused by the vast numbers of families with very young children visiting for the special event day, or a legacy of 1930s buildings, or both, but they really have put a black mark against Dudley which I really wish I didn’t have to give.

Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot at Dudley that I liked, and maybe if I’d visited on a day when every under-5 in the West Midlands wasn’t crowded around the tiger viewing area, I might have liked it more. But it’s a zoo with issues which could do with some work on the visitor facilities, which would really improve the visitor experience. As it stands, they really need to improve their food and especially their loos. I really want to like Dudley, and it’s such a shame that the visitor experience has detracted from what was otherwise a nicely done and historically interesting zoo.

Next: Birmingham Botanical Gardens

 

Finally, a quick note on the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. I really like a botanic garden, and this one is going close to the top of my list of favourite ones. The glasshouses are small but well done, and the gardens are nicely landscaped. Of course, coming right after Buggy-Hoard-Day at Dudley Zoo, the peace and quiet was wonderful! The tearoom was excellent too, I recommend it

Birmingham Botanical Gardens, however, does have some birds on display. Other gardens have animals, usually fish, or small birds and reptiles for pest control, but the birds at Birmingham are kept in separate aviaries. Of the birds I saw, there wasn't anything you couldn't get in a decent pet shop or from a parrot breeder, but they added some noise and movement to the gardens. The birds are kept in three places - at the far exit from the entrance glasshouse, in a set of Victorian-style aviaries opposite the tearooms, and down the far end of the gardens in a Mediterranean-style garden.

I took photos of most of the birds and labels I saw, but they're still on my camera, so I can't give an exact list right now. Mostly the birds were either parrots (cockatoos, macaws, budgerigars, cockatiels, lovebirds etc), or finches.

 

Hi @Brum sorry, I thought I'd replied

I'll remember the prospect of better food at BCLM for any future visits. I saw on the Museums Association that they recently got the funding for 'significant redevelopment' so maybe I'll take a visit when that is finished (for anyone interested: Significant redevelopment confirmed for Black Country Living Museum | Museums Association).

To be honest, after the buggy-scrum at Dudley, ANY nice, quiet, peaceful garden with tasty food and decent loos would instantly get a thumbs-up from me! But it is also just a very nicely laid out gardens, and as a houseplant fan I love to see what they've got going on in their greenhouses. They also have a really lovely Japanese garden and Bonsai collection (which puts the Bonsai collection at Kew to shame!).

Apart from the trips outlined above, we also went to the Museum and Art Gallery (because it was dry in there, when outside was torrential rain), trying not to get lost in the Bullring, and coveting the haberdashery section in John Lewis