They were definitely the only one, the pool couldn't handle him(?) let alone another one and it was common sense (along with not being financially viable) not to replace it or the dolphins that were in the other pool.
There's a thread about it in the Dudley forums if you want to find out more!
They were definitely the only one, the pool couldn't handle him(?) let alone another one and it was common sense (along with not being financially viable) not to replace it or the dolphins that were in the other pool.
There's a thread about it in the Dudley forums if you want to find out more!
Thanks Brum, I really appreciate the information, I have seen the pool before, not in real life but only in pictures, now i can see why another Killer whale would not be practical
Thanks Brum, I really appreciate the information, I have seen the pool before, not in real life but only in pictures, now i can see why another Killer whale would not be practical
You're welcome, I don't know as much as a lot of people on here but I'm willing to share what I can!
The pool was a bit deeper back then than it is now as they built up the sides. The zoo had to seek planning permission to make the walls higher but didn't go down that route and did it without permission. They had to revert to the old pool and the funds were not available to do it to the councils specification. The company that owned the zoo (and the killer whale) were forced to put Cuddles up for sale but unfortunately the whale died before being rehomed.
I have seen the pool, many, many times, and it's possibly adequate for pinnipeds but never for a cetacean.
I have just dug out the winter 1997 issue of "Zoo!" which included an article entitled "A Killer Whale in the Moat" followed by a reprint of The National Zoological Society's Cetacean Survey 1972. The latter tells us the whale pool was 50' long, between 20' and 35' wide and was 12' in depth. The dolphin pool, which was without animals at the time of the survey, was larger in area but shallower with only one part being 10' deep. I always thought the dolphin pool looked very shallow and clearly it was, but I am surprised it was larger in area than the whale pool as from my recollection it did not look it, although maybe that was because the whale pool appeared larger due to its built up walls. There are 21 collections listed in the survey with a total of 57 Bottle-nosed Dolphins in 20 collections and 2 Killer Whales in 2 collections - the other animal being Ramu at Windsor of course.
Completely untrue, as I understand it. Nowhere does actually keep them, but they legally could if they wanted. They'd have to manage the politics quite carefully though.
Completely untrue, as I understand it. Nowhere does actually keep them, but they legally could if they wanted. They'd have to manage the politics quite carefully though.
Very true. I think it would need to be a very large and expensive exhibit to meet the conditions of the Zoo Licensing Act. I think this Act came into effect after most of the old cetacean exhibits had closed - or possibly after all of them.
Not all of them, but definitely most. The Dolphinaria boom was a relatively short-lived affair. No British cetacean pools met the recommended pool sizes that were in the offing did they? I think John Dineley's website has the story behind all of this. It is odd really, in the early 1970s I thought a zoo without cetaceans was not much of a zoo but now the idea of keeping them in captivity seems to horrify vast numbers of people - I think much of that is down to the very effective campaigning of the antis. Funnily enough only this morning I was reading Geoffrey Schomberg's thoughts on Flamingo Park in "The Penguin Guide to British Zoos". He said Dolphins were not easy to keep in captivity and that replacements were necessary at regular intervals. That was certainly the case at the time he was writing, but they were doing so much better by the time they were hounded out of British collections.
W
Whalewriter
If anyone has pictures of Cuddles or Ramu (Windsor Safari Park) they would like to share, please contact me.
