Hope it's not yet another false dawn and things do really get moving. The report says the chair lift will be the first project to be done, hope so as that will raise extra money as I assume there will be a fee for using it, especailly if they have a herd of some sort of animals underneath it, two llama's and sheep are a start......
Dudley Zoological Gardens Dudley Zoo Tecton exhibits
- Thread starter Django
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I actually think it will be a great improvement for the zoo if those decaying lumps of concrete can be restored to well-kept architectural heritage. It will do wonders for the general feel of the place not to be surrounded by buildings that often appear on the verge of disintegration!
mazfc
Well-Known Member
I agree. I have only visited Dudley once on a drizzly day, and I found the crumbling buildings to be total eye-sores. Anything that can be done to improve them would be a benefit to the overall feel of the place.
Hmmm, as you know I'm totally biased in favour of Dudley, but apart from the Tectons and the Orang outdoors, where are the problems?
Maybe I just go so often I get blind to the problems and just dont see them.
It's certainly a far better place to visit than even 10 years ago.
Absolutely, that was about the time of my first visit and the general state of the zoo (especially in terms of overgrown foliage in most cages and aviaries) was, visually at least, very poor.
The zoo's made great improvements (on its general look and with new/refurbished enclosures) since then on a miniscule budget.
I agree that the major thing, on the animal side, needing improvement is the Orang-utan enclosure -they've made great improvements to the indoor quarters though I fear they'll never make a silk purse out of a Sow's ear and the enclosure will only ever be just adequate.
I also think the Sealion enclosure needs scrapping or seriously improving, it's too narrow, not deep enough, and is usually agae-ridden.
I agree on most of your points and love the sow's ear line lol! I dont think the sealion pool is alae ridden, it's cleaned on a regular basis, must just be it's colour due to old age (?). I'd love to see seals in there sometime rather than sea lions.
I also think the giraffe paddock needs an upgrade or moved to another area (think there were plans at some stage).
Fair enough, but it still looks grotty though. Small seals (Baikal if I'm playing fantasy zoos) might work better than Sealions, but I still think depth is a problem. In any case it's probably listed, so I'm not sure how they could easily move things forward. Also pinniped enclosure developments tend to hoover money, unlike say some carnivore or hoofstock enclosures, so I'd imagine changes are a way down the line.
adrian1963
Well-Known Member
Sea Lion pool at one stage (I think it still stands) English heritage wanted the zoo to move the Sea Lions and put the pools back to thier original condition as part of the moat
I haven't been to Dudley for some years so felt my comment above may have been somewhat unfair. However two of the exhibits I would have quoted (from previous visits) would have been the Giraffe paddock and the Sealion/moated areas and it seems from the intervening posts that improvements could still be made in these areas, if more money was available.
I also think although photos in the Gallery show the Chimpanzee area is now a lot better, it isn't up to scratch if they don't/can't maintain a mixed-sex social group of Chimpanzees. I believe this problem is soon to be addressed- or is it just being talked about?
The staff did a good job of upgrading the interior of the Orangutan House, but the 'silk purse' statement still holds true for this House as a whole.
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Fair response, I cant argue with your reply, I'd only invite you to revisit as soon as you can to see how it looks now, or maybe wait until some of the grant money is spent to get a better idea of how things have changed for the better.