Its sad so little has happened in the fifty years since this Ape House/ enclosure was built. When the Ape House had all three Great Ape species, the Orangutans had this same enclosure then. It had one large 'tree' for them to climb, instead of these solid climbing frames, but that's the only real difference apart from woodchip covering the concrete floor.
These solid/rigid climbing frames are really unsuitable for this arboreal ape- they need pliant ropes or rubber hosing they can swing on from place to place. It wouldn't cost too much to improve things some more but overall I don't think Dudley should still be keeping them in these conditions.
Everyone always complains about Dudley's truly terrible orangutan "toilet bowl" enclosures, but isn't there a British inspection team that supervises the major zoos? In the United States there is AZA which rigidly inspects each and every exhibit at a zoo every 5 years for that zoo to retain its accreditation. I'm not saying that this enclosure would be failed in the U.S., but I am wondering if an inspection team would be impressed by 50 year-old facilities that are clearly outdated and aesthetically awful.
While I cannot think of any Orang enclosure that looks worse than this one in the UK,atleast when it was built it was state of the art,un-like some that have been built in the UK since this has been built!!
But Dudley does have plans to do something about this exhibit,and if they can find the money to do it,I think many people will be very surprised at how much the exhibit will be improved,while still keeping the Urinals pretty much as they are!!!!
But Dudley does have plans to do something about this exhibit,and if they can find the money to do it,I think many people will be very surprised at how much the exhibit will be improved,while still keeping the Urinals pretty much as they are!!!!
I think the 'Urinal' walls are the heart of the problem really, but I also know without them the whole building would probably fall down as they are support walls for the interior too. Its a pity they can't raze the whole thing(the outside anyway) to the ground and start afresh. But I know they can't afford to do that.
The old Polar bear enclosure has recently been transformed very well for the old Himalayan Bear- so I remain hopeful they can do similar here- though I'm not sure how while the 'urinal' walls still stay..
Ive sort of boycotted dudley zoo because of these enclosures - which is silly i know because without visitors they would have no money to improve, but i dont want to shatter my family and friends delicate enjoymeent of zoos which ive been trying to build for years..I'm afarid tthese enclosures would shater it in seconds.
