Dudley Zoological Gardens 1960's Polar Bears at Dudley. (plus 2 ID's)

johnstoni said:
until how long ago did Dudley keep Common hippo?
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There was a story regarding Dudley's hippo who was named Hercules, I stand to be corrected but I think Dudley took him in as the place where he came from was shut down and the hippo would be put to sleep.
He lived where the gibbons are now, if you look inside the gibbons house you can see the steps at the front which led into a little indoor pool,he also had an outside pool.
I don't think he lived too long at Dudley as he was pretty old when he arrived, and I guess this must be about 12 to 15 years ago.
 
chizlit said:
There was a story regarding Dudley's hippo who was named Hercules, I stand to be corrected but I think Dudley took him in as the place where he came from was shut down and the hippo would be put to sleep.
He lived where the gibbons are now, if you look inside the gibbons house you can see the steps at the front which led into a little indoor pool,he also had an outside pool.
I don't think he lived too long at Dudley as he was pretty old when he arrived, and I guess this must be about 12 to 15 years ago.
Click to expand...

According to “A Survey of the Hippopotamus in Captivity in the British Isles” (John Frost; 1996)
there were two hippos at Dudley:-

• Hercules 1 who arrived at Dudley when Cleethorpes Zoo closed. (He had previously also been at Belle Vue Manchester.) He died on 16th November 1979.
• Hercules II (also known as Sam) who was born at Chester on 24 March 1978; arrived at Dudley on 22nd December 1979 and died in July 1991.
 
Very good article Shirokuma thank you for posting it!!

Come on Dudley learn to love your beautiful buildings :p :D
 
Interesting isn't it? However there is a mistake at the end of the article, it says that the gorilla house at London has gone but of course it is still there, it's where the ring tailed lemurs are now.
 
Shirokuma - I;ve just posted a photograph of the Gorilla House in the early days in the London Zoo Gallery if you like to look
unfortunatly the person who sent me the photo didn't put what year
 
They had an impressive animal collection back then too. I wish they still had leopards/jaguars. They did have lots of animals back then.
 
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