I don't think Dudley should keep Chimpanzees unless they can exhibit a proper socially balanced group with both sexes. If they can't afford the proper fencing to contain males, they should not keep this species at all.
Correct. 'Pepe' was Dudley's original male who grew up in the old Ape House with three(then two) female companions. His original companions, the two females Bella & Cherry, were sent to London and the larger ZSL female group joined Pepe in the new accomodation at Dudley. He did not look happy in this situation- seemingly intimidated by a strong 'clique' of females who appeared to dominate him. Since he died they never replaced him.
Hi I know I am bit late posting (9months sorry) just joined! I used to work at Dudley zoo and Johnstoni is correct on all points, but I would like to correct a previous comment the Chimp enclosure was added in 2001 ( I think ). The Geochrom was built in 1992 and was then home to butterflies and the Dudley Bug. This was a bit of a failure to say the least but now houses Monkey tails and the Chimps. The fencing around the enclosure and and will hold a male chimpanzee, it did for many years with Pepe in there. It is true Pepe used to rule the old Ape house but he never did dominate the 9 females that came from ZSL.
In the old Ape House Pepe was a normal adult male with just his two females he could dominate easily, with his typical noisy displays. But faced with a big group of females he was totally outnumbered and he became a changed animal and looked very miserable- when I saw him he sat on his own in a corner and screamed pathetically if a female came near him. They will almost certainly have the same problem if they get just ONE new male- the females will outnumber him and continue to rule the roost. I think there are either six or seven females now- so a good ratio would be THREE new males- preferably ones that know each other already-and they need to be strong adults, not young ones which might never be able to dominate these adult females, even at maturity.
I totally agree with everybody saying that male chimps need to be bought in asap for a more natural group at Dudley. However, looking at numerous threads on the zoo there also seems to be other major jobs people would like to see carried out (e.g. orang accommodation, better facilities for giraffes etc). Non of these jobs are cheap in cost and the impression I get is that major funds are not readily available to this zoo. They appear to do what they can, when they can and much of this work appears to carried out by their own staff. I have visited on a few occasions and even though there are some major issues I find some of the enclosures to be very nice (gibbons in particular). I sincerely hope one day sufficient funding comes along to help Dudley acheive some of the plans that emerge quite regularly but never actually materialise in the flesh.
