Dudley Zoological Gardens Dudley Zoo News 2022

was talking to a keeper who said sprout had just basically dropped the baby and had no interest so jazz took over and in the wild she would probably struggle to raise the two but because they are in captivity they can give extra food so she is able to look after them both.

Interesting to know the exact situation about this, seems my suspicion Jazz stole it was unfounded. :oops: My apologies to her....:) its also a better outcome than having to handrear it if all goes well.
 
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When I visited on Monday the staff also mentioned that she gave birth 5 minutes before the orangutan talk in full view of the public so they rushed to lower the shutters and give as much privacy as they could.
 
When I visited on Monday the staff also mentioned that she gave birth 5 minutes before the orangutan talk in full view of the public so they rushed to lower the shutters and give as much privacy as they could.
This suggests they had no idea she was pregnant.
 
Had a lovely few hrs here yesterday very happy to see both new orangutan babies was talking to a keeper who said sprout had just basically dropped the baby and had no interest so jazz took over

Thinking about it a bit more, the usual scenario in Orangutans, even for a first time mother, is that the baby is born, she cleans it then it clings to her very strongly with an iron-like grip- vital for a newborn living high in the trees in the wild. So the mother can't just 'drop it'- unless she never picked it up in the first place. That might be the case, though IMO having the baby in the daytime or in full view (or nearly so) of visitors wouldn't normally affect a female's attitude to a newborn, even a first time one if she was going to look after it. They see visitors all day long everyday so are not fazed by that. Over the years a number of apes in zoos have been born in full view of visitors and the mothers have usually showed no concern at all.
 
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It’s a zoo weekend so spurred on by Brum mentioning an arctic fox at Dudley and Dassie Rat mentioning they had had a good trip even after a bit of a journey off I went to Dudley. Thank you to both :)

It’s actually under 2 hours away so slightly kicking myself I hadn’t visited before. Tbh I’ve never been to Dudley let alone the zoo so a first all round!

Parking was easy enough - assume the paid for parking which is a bit unusual for zoos is due to the town centre sort of location and not a huge charge either way. It wasn’t too busy.

I have to say I very much enjoyed the day - it’s good to see the level of investment in things like the orangutang enclosure. I do love seeing apes and both the chimps and orangutang were quite a treat particularly with the babies on show in the orangutang area.

Lots of the enclosures seem to be good spaces and was interesting to hear from one of the keepers that new / expanded areas are planned for the tigers and giraffes. Building going on all over the place too.

The keepers were very friendly and were giving information at lots of the enclosures and quite present which was great.

The listed buildings remind me a bit of both sites for ZSL (same architect in places I believe) but good use of the spaces for the fox and the wolverine now. Shocking to think a polar bear and a killer whale were in a couple of these enclosures - far more appropriate animals in place now. Though the sea lion enclosure isn’t the most varied looking. Better use of legacy than Whipsnade in particular.

Was great to see Helga the wolverine in her new home after she moved from whipsnade. Very interesting enclosure design and she was all over the climbing frames, banks and in the pond. A very pleasurable enclosure to watch and plenty of places for her to both hide and be seen.

Wanted to see the fox very much and he obliged by being highly visible and active in another interesting enclosure.

Have to say I was very glad of the paper map as it’s not the easiest place to navigate for the first timer - unusual to see a paper map these days! Was also glad of the benches and a bit of shelter as it rained heavily off and on.

I liked the fact there are benches overlooking enclosures so you can sit and watch the animals. Lots of places seem to put the seating away from the enclosures (assume to avoid bottlenecking or something).

Tigers are very impressive, good looking and were fun to watch - a bit of expanded space will be good news for them. The lion enclosure seems interesting - naturally they were napping on every circuit I did. The ability to see the enclosure from lots of angles was interesting.

I really liked the use of the natural terrain for the geladas and spider monkeys - they suit the steep hillside well. The chair lift allows a great view of them too.

Absolutely loved seeing the ruffled lemurs in the walkthrough as well as the ring tailed lemurs. It’s often hard to photograph ruffled lemurs in enclosures and some excellent opportunities with them sitting around.

The aviary walkthrough was very impressive and a lot of fun to spend time in. Hadn’t expected to have the camera lens sat on by lorikeets!

Couple of less positive spaces in terms of size and variation for both the Barbary sheep and the Parma wallabies but equally they didn’t look unhappy and the sheep had quite a few youngsters.

Really enjoyed the Lynx who were right near the fence and glass - the outside space is a bit of a box but lots of things to do in it. Not as natural as some of the other enclosures I’ve seen for lynx though. Lovely looking cats though.

Some interesting birds - the enclosure for the burrowing owls in particular was interesting putting you on their level ground wise while giving them space and privacy.

It’s certainly very steep and hilly - was glad I’ve been doing a bit of running! Will definitely make a return visit.

I also thought I’d been to Dudley before but realised I never had - I need to be as well organised on my to visit list as some other zoochatters clearly are!
 
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the new baby orang is another boy and they have called it JOE after his maternal grandfather and great grandfather

His maternal grandfather being Jorong and his great-grandfather also being a Joe.

Here's the link: Hello, Joe! – Dudley Zoo and Castle

I think @Pertinax will approve :)


So the zoo is currently home to Benji, Djimat, Jazz, Sprout, Jim, and Joe.
 
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Confirmation from the zoo about the red pandas...

A 1-year-old female red panda, called Ember, joined Dudley from Blackpool Zoo earlier this summer as a breeding partner for Dudley's resident 7-year-old male, called Gawa.

They can be found in an enclosure at the far end of the small primate exhibits behind the old Discovery Centre.

Meanwhile, Dudley's 17-year-old female red panda, called Yasmin, remains in the original hillside enclosure opposite the giraffe paddock.

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I've just got back from my first visit to Dudley Zoo in nine years, while I wouldn't go as far as saying it's one of my all-time favourite zoos, I certainly had a good time and it was money well spent. Here are a few points from my visit:
- Despite the weather, almost all of the animals were out and on full view, the only no-shows to speak of were the snow leopards, which I wasn't expecting to see on such a scorching hot day anyway.
- I did get to see the Arctic fox and Helga the wolverine, but unfortunately my phone's camera struggled to focus on Helga so I didn't get any good photos of her.
- The Reptile House was very nice, I miss seeing good quality reptile houses in zoos, and this one is up there with one of the best I've seen. The only issue I had was a lot of other guests flowed into the entrance as I was trying to get a photo of a snake, and kind of clogged up the area and made a lot of noise, forcing me to push forward.
- The only orangutan I got a decent look at was Benji (thanks to Benosaurus for identifying him), I didn't get to see Jazz or the newborns unfortunately.
- There was one section of the zoo that I didn't get around to, the Great Crested Newt Project and the gibbon enclosure, but by the time I looked at the map and realised I was too tired to cycle back around and get there.
 
Were the giraffes still visible? I'm planning to visit on Friday but I might change plans if they're not. Thanks

They were indeed. Should probably have also photographed the actual animals!

How it’s going is the giraffe are in their normal paddock where they’re mostly outside but they do have access to the house. The people side of the house is not accessible and is being redone presumably so giraffe can get out of both sides.
 
They were indeed. Should probably have also photographed the actual animals!

How it’s going is the giraffe are in their normal paddock where they’re mostly outside but they do have access to the house. The people side of the house is not accessible and is being redone presumably so giraffe can get out of both sides.
Great, thank you
 
Surprised this hasn't been mentioned on here yet, but the newly-renovated Snowy owl aviary has been finished and is complete with new viewing windows installed.

The zoo also has a new male Snowy owl named Thunder, he arrived earlier in the month from Drayton Manor Theme Park and is settling well into the new aviary.

Dudley Zoo
 
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