The patagonian sea lion group is a group of 3. There is a male called Oba and 2 females called Tanya and Marina I think. They used to have a female called Deisy but think she passed away a few years ago. The enclosure is built in the moat of the castle and is spilt into 2 halves. Currently the male lives separate from the females. The enclosures are not great but I don't know what could replace them
The patagonian sea lion group is a group of 3. There is a male called Oba and 2 females called Tanya and Marina I think. They used to have a female called Deisy but think she passed away a few years ago. The enclosure is built in the moat of the castle and is spilt into 2 halves. Currently the male lives separate from the females. The enclosures are not great but I don't know what could replace them
With regards to the Gelada baboons, there are currently 2 groups (the batchelors who are next to the spider monkeys) and Ebano and his brood in the old Macaque house. Then there’s 2 young males on the hillside where the larger family were… who are being moved in with the 3 batchelors soon, with a long term plan to move all (soon to be) 5 into the big hillside. And apparently a new male to come to the large family in the Macaque house. (Ebano has recently been neutered) The younger males who will stay on the hillside are Ebano’s last males so they can’t keep them with the rest of the family due to potential inbreeding.
Summary of Dudley Zoo and Castle in 2022
“One small step for an orang…”
“The time has come,”
the ‘saurus said,
“To talk of other things:
Of zoos and chimps and Arctic fox,
Of capuchins and penguins…”
I.e., the traditional babble, prattle, and yammer about all that went on at Dudley Zoo over the foregoing year.
Upgraded, refurbished, new and future exhibits
After an unsettling previous 2 years, to the surprise and subsequent excitement of many, the zoo began the year by revealing a sizable 12-month plan to expand and improve many of the facilities for animals and visitors in 2022. This included…
- Completion of the new outdoor orangutan enclosure.
- Beginning and completion of a new additional giraffe paddock and alterations to the existing house.
- Beginning the extension and refurbishment of the tiger enclosure, as well as construction of a new house.
- Creation of a small new picnic area opposite the sloth exhibit with a view into the off-show Big Ben Cavern (which may involve demolition of a large aviary).
- Securing funding to build a Changing Places adult complex care facility.
- Continuing to develop plans to restore four of the listed Tecton structures.
- Continuing to work alongside Dudley Council to form a maintenance plan for the castle.
- The arrival of “a few” new animals to the collection.
• Orangutans.
After work on a new additional outdoor enclosure for the zoo’s Bornean orangutans began in March/April of 2021, in May of 2022 the zoo announced that the enclosure was complete, and the orangs were busy exploring their new space.
So, what do you get for a cost of ~£500,000 and a build time of 12 months?
Well, the enclosure covers a large area, an additional 1,300 square metres according to the zoo, that to the naked eye appears to be around four times larger than the larger of the two old outdoor areas. As for the perimeter fence, think Monkey World style fencing: high mesh with a curved metal overhang and an electrical deterrent.
Below: A birds-eye-view showing the new outdoor area next to the original 1960s outdoor areas. View attachment 606483 Photo credit: Dudley Zoo and Castle
There’s a large, complex, new climbing structure, 40m (131 ft) long and 7m (23 ft) high according to the zoo, constructed from numerous vertical machined logs, a.k.a. ‘telegraph poles’, which are connected to one another by more telegraph poles positioned at a multitude of different angles. More importantly, the whole structure is criss-crossed with a plethora of ropes leading in nearly every direction, allowing the animals to negotiate the length of the structure using the ropes alone if they choose. The apparatus also consists of a large, elevated heated shelter, plus several large cargo nets, hammocks, and platforms. The rigid aspects of the climbing structure are quite openly spaced, rather than being dense or tightly packed, so there is plenty of room for swinging and brachiation. Another thing to note is that the climbing structure covers a very large proportion of the enclosure’s floor area, so there is very little wasted space for the arboreal apes.
There’s no argument that the climbing structures would’ve had a nicer, more naturalistic aesthetic from a visitor’s perspective if natural tree trunks had been used instead of telegraph poles, but then perhaps telegraph poles have the advantage of being sturdier, safer, more weather resistant, more resistant to wear and tear, longer lasting, easier to source in large numbers, easier to transport and maybe cheaper too.
Greenery-wise, the floor of enclosure is covered by soft grass, with patches of low natural vegetation that the orangs have been seen picking and eating. The lushness of the grass is quite astonishing given the very short growing season (the ground was still bare dirt in mid-May) and a very hot summer. It’s possible that more foliage may spring up naturally over 2023, or the zoo may decide to plant more themselves - making the enclosure look a bit more naturalistic, while not being a desperate need, is certainly something it could benefit from.
Below: A view from one of the viewing windows showing approximately half of the new outdoor area around 3 months after opening. View attachment 606484 Photo credit: GiraffeJack10
Many of the exhibits at Dudley have their own topographical individualism in one way or another, and the new orangutan outdoor area is no different. The enclosure slopes gently downwards from West to East, and it’s this elevation change, combined with the tall climbing structures, that affords the orangs excellent views over the fence. In their old outdoor enclosures, the large, terraced viewing area and grass bank directly in front of them meant the orangs couldn’t see further than around 50ft, which must have severely restricted their idea of the world around them, whereas the new enclosure is almost surrounded by mature trees and, if they look through said trees, they can now see the horizon.
Overall, viewing opportunities for visitors are good; viewing windows span the entire elevated side of the enclosure, meaning the apes are at visitors’ eye level when they are at height. However, viewing opportunities could be better, because walking around it does feel as though the enclosure is missing another viewing window or two on its lower border. Although, this may be deliberate if the zoo decided
not to have ground-level viewing windows because of the risk of the orangs scratching them.
I appreciate that others may disagree, but one of the nice things about the new enclosure is the absence of gimmicks. No wide, space-consuming perimeter moats or unnaturalistic, unnecessary waterfalls; no concrete trees, plastic plants, or mock rock; no over-the-top theming or native knick-knacks (i.e. clutter); no patronising “immersive” music or grandiloquent name. Just the provision of the maximum amount of space and climbing opportunities possible for the animals.
Whilst constructing the new outdoor area, the zoo also turned their attention to the orangutan house. The building had brand new insulated corrugated cladding installed to its exterior walls; a big improvement on the algae-stained half-round timbers, installed in 2010 after the house was extended in 2009, that covered it before. The zoo has said that in general they are trying to make their animal houses more energy efficient.
Two new animal access tunnels link the existing indoor areas to the new enclosure.
With regards to the wellbeing of the zoo’s orangutans, the significance of the new enclosure is enormous. By providing more height, space, and climbing opportunities, as well as far-reaching 360-degree views, it has been nothing short of life-changing for the zoo’s four adult orangutans. The two adult females, Jazz and Sprout, have been at Dudley all their lives. As for the two adult males, Benji arrived at Dudley in 1996, spending most of his time since then living in one of the worst orangutan outdoor enclosures in Europe, and Djimat arrived at Dudley in 2021 from similarly poor orangutan facilities overseas.
The zoo said that Jazz and Djimat were the first ones to explore their new surroundings, before Sprout joined them a short time later, while solitary male Benji took a few days to pluck up the courage to venture out.
The zoo also said that seeing them in their new space for the first time was a very emotional moment for staff.
A few months after the orangs moved into the new enclosure, two male orangutans were born. These births mean the zoo is now home to six (4.2) Bornean orangutans:
- Benji. Male. Born 6th November 1977, Duisburg Zoo. Parents are Max (m) X Susi (f). Arrived at Dudley on 2nd February 1996 from Dublin Zoo.
- Djimat. Male. Born 21st July 1988, Rotterdam Zoo. Parents are Chiko (m) X Petra (f). Arrived at Dudley on 7th October 2021 from Aalborg Zoo.
- Jazz. Female. Born 11th November 1991, Dudley Zoo. Parents are Joe (m) X Azimat (f).
- Sprout. Female. Born 30th March 2011, Dudley Zoo. Parents are Jorong (m) X Jazz (f).
- Jim. Male. Born 25th June 2022, Dudley Zoo. Parents are Djimat (m) X Jazz (f).
- Joe. Male. Born 23rd July 2022, Dudley Zoo. Parents are Djimat (m) X Sprout (f).
There were several changes around the outside of the new enclosure too.
A new wooden set of stairs were constructed that link the far end of the visitor’s path in front of the old outdoor areas to the main pathway at the top of the grass bank. A landing a quarter of the way up, at the point where staircase turns ninety degrees to the left, allows visitors to pause and get another wide view of the enclosure from a different angle, albeit through mesh.
Large, bright fact files on each of the four adult orangs were created and installed along the visitor’s path in front of the old outdoor areas - the zoo is now proudly drawing attention to their orangs.
A local contemporary graffiti artist produced large artworks of a juvenile, adult male, and adult female orangutan on wooden fencing next to a new “conservation hut” attached to the new enclosure, similar to one that stands in the lemur walkthrough, that contains interactive educational displays and information about palm oil. It also contains a family tree of the zoo’s orangutans. In addition, another piece by the graffiti artist can be found nearer the indoor viewing areas that depicts a wheelbarrow full of baby orangutans. This is to emphasise the many orphaned orangutans that result from illegal hunting and deforestation who end up at rescue and rehabilitation centres.
Further along there is a large aerial photograph, attached to large access gates, showing the impact of deforestation in Borneo, as well as facts and figures on deforestation and the illegal wildlife trade.
A large new steel statue was installed next to the new enclosure too, specifically, in the space between the perimeter fence and the public stand-off barrier at the North-Eastern corner. The piece features 100 steel poles, of which 97 are cut to knee-height to represent deforestation since 97% of orangutans' natural habitat has been lost, leaving only 3% left.
Of the three remaining 6m tall poles, a 2m tall female Bornean orangutan sculpture is holding onto two, trying to get to her youngster who is clinging on to the final third pole but, due to deforestation, is just out of reach.
The idea is that this powerful, easy to understand, visual message will instantly and dramatically highlight the plight of orangutans in the wild to everyone that sees it, quickly hammering home their desperate situation.
It is good to see when zoos go the extra mile to fulfil one of their other major responsibilities as a zoo - raising public awareness of the threats facing their animals’ wild counterparts and promoting conservation - and Dudley’s approach seems far more convincing and effective than say … a multi-million-pound theme park for example. Doing this also demonstrates to the public that the zoo’s intentions are in exactly the right place.
The new sculpture follows on from the ring-tailed lemur sculpture in the lemur walkthrough, built and installed in 2020 by the same artist, that has a similarly powerful conservation message behind it.
In addition to drastically improving the orangutan facilities at home, the zoo has pledged £100,000 over five years to the Sintang Orangutan Centre (SOC) in Indonesia, which specialises in the rescue, rehabilitation and release of orangutans back into the wild, alongside raising awareness and educating local people in a bid to reduce deforestation and stop illegal poaching. The zoo’s support has helped the centre fund the building of a second Forest School - a two-hectare jungle enclosure which will be used to give around eight orangutans the chance to learn basic survival skills, such as climbing, foraging for food and nest building, before they’re released into protected wild forests. Hopefully the zoo places some information about the work of this in-situ rescue centre near the new sculpture as well. The SOC has its own website, and you can follow them on their YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram pages.
It should be noted that the new outdoor area is an additional one. This is because the zoo needs to keep using the two old outdoor areas (originally split into 3), which have now been merged into one by opening a keeper access door between them. This is due to the fact they have two ‘groups’ of orangs, as Benji, the zoo’s non-breeding adult male, lives by himself. The zoo manages this by regularly rotating the two ‘groups’ between the new and old outdoor enclosures. Djimat, the zoo’s breeding adult male, lives happily alongside the females and youngsters; the zoo says he is a very relaxed individual who has lived in family units before moving to DZC.
Just because the zoo has provided the orangutans with an additional outdoor area doesn’t mean they plan to stop there. During the year the zoo restated that now the new outdoor enclosure is completed, the next step in improving the orangutan facilities is to secure further funding to “redevelop and combine” the original outdoor areas. In addition to that, in the summer 2022 edition of the zoo’s ZooNooz magazine, it was stated that the final stage of redevelopment of the ape house, scheduled to begin in 2025, will see the removal of moat, the creation of additional indoor accommodation, and an extension to the larger of the 1960s outdoor areas.
Finally, in the summer edition of the zoo’s ZooNooz magazine the zoo also said that they hope to construct new housing for their lar gibbons, with the aim for them to have access to the new orangutan outdoor area in the near future. Personally, Jim and Joe interacting with the gibbons is something I can’t wait to see.
• Former howler monkey enclosure.
During a visit in early February, a Zoochatter saw that the zoo’s aging pair of black howler monkeys, Dargie and Avyanna, had moved from their large Tecton enclosure, on the right of the ex-polar bear Tecton, into a recently built enclosure near the main chimpanzee outdoor viewing area. It was also observed that all the old climbing structure in the howler monkey’s former Tecton home had been demolished. The old climbing structure was a very good size but had quite a spindly and homespun appearance, and recognisable by its haphazard overabundance of wooden ladders: like a riot at window cleaners convention.
In late February, the zoo announced publicly what we already knew, i.e. the howler monkeys had moved and they were busy redeveloping their former enclosure. However, the zoo also stated that a new species would be making the remodelled enclosure its home, although they stayed tight-lipped as to its identity.
Another Zoochatter visited in late March and saw that a huge wooden climbing frame had been built to replace the old one.
All this was incredibly intriguing. What in all of Earth’s species was going in there? The answer to this question was one that was very difficult to narrow down since the new enclosure looked like almost any species of small-to-medium sized land mammal, one that is either primarily arboreal or one that is terrestrial with a strong ability to climb, would be suitable for it. At this stage it also wasn’t known whether the new species would be using the external housing used by the howler monkeys or the original Tecton dens that have been used by bears and tigers in the past.
Then, on the 1st of April, the zoo finally put us out of our misery by announcing the new species was a Eurasian wolverine - the first in the zoo’s history. And they weren’t foolin’; a three-year-old female, called Helga, had arrived from Whipsnade Zoo the day before.
This news came as a very pleasant surprise to many locals and Dudley regulars. Wolverines are a fantastic new species for the zoo and Dudley is currently one of only six collections in the UK to house this species and the only holder within the Midlands.
So, what does the completed enclosure look like? Well, most obvious is the enormous new climbing structure. Far larger, taller and more impressive than the old one, it utilises much more of enclosure’s volume and provides plenty of climbing opportunities. It appears to be well-made too. It has a far chunkier, more substantial, look to it than the old structure and appears to have been constructed with much more care, thought, and expertise. The structure also consists of platforms, raised shelters, and various enrichment devices.
A good-sized pool has been constructed too, as well as a small shelter at ground-level towards the rear of the enclosure.
Size-wise, it’s nowhere near the biggest wolverine enclosure in the UK but it is still of reasonable size.
Being dominated by that huge climbing structure and surrounded by high Tecton walls means the enclosure definitely isn’t your typical naturalistic wolverine enclosure that you’d find in the UK. However, given the abundance of rocks, small plants, tall shrubs, small tree saplings, grass, dirt and the steep grassy backdrop, it still succeeds in managing to look fairly naturalistic.
The howler monkey’s indoor housing was a building situated outside the Tecton enclosure; linked to the old outdoor climbing structure via a rope bridge. However, the wolverine has been given use of the original Tecton dens (presumably a good size as they have previously housed multiple bears at the same time). The external housing formerly used by the howler monkeys is no longer connected to the enclosure, because the rope bridge was not reattached to the new climbing structure; but is still home to the zoo’s six-banded armadillos.
• Giraffes.
Other than regular maintenance and the installation of feeding poles and a wooden platform (used for talks and zookeeper experiences) the giraffe house and paddock has changed little since its construction in the early 1960s. I imagine the paddock was first commonly perceived as being on the small side for its inhabitants relatively soon after its inception, especially as the late 1960s and early 1970s was the genesis era for the safari park in the UK, including the nearby West Midlands Safari Park. Since then, while of course never seeming like a terrible or cruel enclosure, the giraffe paddock at Dudley has felt progressively smaller as the years go by.
However, there has always been a large, and largely disused, space behind the giraffe house, that many people over the years have thought should be utilised in order to provide the giraffes with potentially double their current outdoor space. However, the giraffe house completely shuts off the original paddock from the unused area behind it, so this was always much easier said than done.
At the start of the year, the zoo announced their plan to commence and complete work to transform this unused land at the rear of the house into a second paddock. This would also include altering the interior of the existing house, by extending the giraffe stabling into part of the visitor viewing area, which spans the length of the house and takes up about a third of its width, to give the giraffes access to more of the indoor space as well as to allow them access into the new paddock through a new giraffe-sized door in the rear wall. In addition, a new visitor walkway and viewing area would be created along the outside of the building.
At the beginning of 2022, the zoo stated that they hoped to have the giraffe project “ready for summer”, but for whatever reason, most likely because of delays with the supply of construction materials or to reduce stress while one of the giraffes underwent veterinary care, this did not happen. Work didn’t even begin until late summer and wasn’t complete by the end of 2022.
So, what did happen in 2022? Well, thanks to Zoochatter visit reports and progress photos, we at least know that, between August and November, the space behind the house was cleared and flattened, and most of the perimeter fencing was installed, including a large gabion wall along the right-hand side. As for the house, the raised flooring of the rear section of the indoor viewing area was lowered to match the level of the rest of the house and the railing that divided the lower front and upper rear sections of the viewing area was removed. The old stand-off barrier was also removed, however a new one, half its length, was installed in its place. When it reaches the halfway point of the old stand-off barrier, the new stand-off barrier then turns 90 degrees to the right and connects to the rear wall, therefore cutting the old indoor viewing area in half.
In addition, a new covered viewing area, that is joined to the back of the giraffe house and looks into the new paddock, was constructed. Presumably it will be accessed via a new visitor-sized doorway cut into the rear wall of the giraffe house within what remains of the indoor viewing area.
At the end of 2022, the zoo had 1.2 giraffes: Kubwa (pure Rothschild’s bull), Josie (hybrid) and Kira (hybrid, born September 2019).
In the past, the giraffe enclosure has functioned as mixed exhibit too, holding zebra and Arabian gazelles on separate occasions alongside the giraffes during the mid-to-late 1990’s, with their housing being a small building located within the original paddock that is attached to the outside of the giraffe house. Before moving to the giraffe paddock, the Arabian gazelles could be found in what is now the Parma wallaby enclosure.
• Snowy owl aviary.
Over the summer months, the old snowy owl aviary, which must’ve been at least 25 years old, was completely demolished and a new one of similar, possibly identical, size was constructed in its place.
The tall new structure is formed of timber-framed sides and a steel-framed roof supported with vertical wooden beams. The frame is covered in steel mesh apart from the addition of new viewing windows to the front at visitor level – fortunately the aviary is located in a shady area so reflections shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
The interior of the aviary, which sits on a steep grassy hillside, was also refurbished. This included cutting away a bit more of the slope, which ascends towards the rear, at the front of the aviary in order to create a larger flat area, which was then covered in a layer of gravel. Several tall vertical posts and horizontal branches for perching were installed, as well as a sheltered perch in both rear corners.
A Zoochatter was told by someone on social media that Dudley’s last snowy owl passed away in 2021. In August, a new male snowy owl, named Thunder, arrived at Dudley and made the newly rebuilt and refurbished aviary its home. Whilst it was under construction, another Zoochatter was told by workmen that the aviary was being rebuilt to hold a new pair of snowy owls.
My only disappointment is that the opportunity wasn’t taken to dramatically increase the size of the aviary, but perhaps restrictions didn’t allow for that as I don’t think they are allowed to block the view of any of the castle walls with large aviaries or fencing.
• Aviaries.
Opposite the sloth enclosure, between the cassowary enclosure on the left and the otter enclosure on the right, is a long row of adjoined aviaries, which I don’t think have changed much in over 20 years. Furthest left in the row are the smallest aviaries, then some slightly taller aviaries in the middle, then a much larger single aviary on the right.
In 2022 the smallest aviaries and the middle aviaries were completely demolished.
The smallest aviaries were then rebuilt to the same height as the original middle aviaries.
The middle aviaries were then rebuilt to the same height as the large single aviary on the right and merged into one single aviary, meaning there are now two large aviaries (the rebuilt one in the middle and the original one on the right) standing side by side.
Another thing to note is that the rebuilt middle aviary is no longer adjoined to the large aviary on the right as it was originally. This may be to do with the zoo’s 12-month plan, which was revealed at the beginning of the year, that included creating a small new picnic area opposite the sloth exhibit with a view into the off-show Big Ben Cavern. Sadly, this likely involves demolition of the large aviary on the right. At the time of writing, I don’t know if the zoo has begun demolishing the large aviary on the right yet, or if it is still their plan to do so at all, although if they weren’t planning on permanently demolishing it then you’d think they’d have demolished and rebuilt it at the same time as the other aviaries.
• Parma wallabies.
In early October, a Zoochatter visited and saw that the Parma wallaby enclosure was in the midst of a major refurbishment. At that point the wallabies were off-show and the fencing along the left-hand-side of the enclosure, bordering the Barbary sheep enclosure, had been taken down. A few days later, another Zoochatter visited and saw that the old housing had been almost completely demolished – a building that had been looking in need of at least a new roof for quite a while and more recently appeared to have been covered with some blue tarpaulin, presumably to prevent leaks.
Another Zoochatter visited in early December and observed that an entirely new house, insulated in green corrugated cladding with a Parma wallaby-sized door in the front of it, was under construction in the top right-hand corner of the enclosure (the old house had been in the top left-hand corner).
After that, the entire paddock was extended forward into the old stand-off area, with new fencing at the front of the paddock too (which may or may not contain viewing windows instead of mesh).
The refurb’ was not completed by the end of 2022, but it is yet another example of an old enclosure, that hadn’t changed for decades, being thoroughly refurbished and improved.
Arrivals
• 0.1 green aracari, called Dini. Arrived at DZC at the end of 2021 but went on-show in 2022 in the Queen Mary aviary alongside the zoo’s resident scarlet ibis, mandarin ducks, ringed teals and Puna ibis.
• 0.1 three-year-old wolverine, called Helga, from Whipsnade Zoo.
• 0.0.7 sun conures. They can be found in the macaw aviary between the otters and the lemur walkthrough.
• 1.0 two-year-old snowy owl, called Thunder, from Drayton Manor Theme Park.
• 0.1 one-year-old red panda, called Ember, from Blackpool Zoo. Paired with Dudley's resident seven-year-old male, called Gawa. Gawa arrived at Dudley in 2016 from Rotterdam Zoo as a companion for Dudley's elderly (now 17 y/o) female red panda, called Yasmin, in the hillside enclosure opposite the giraffe paddock. However, after Ember’s arrival, Gawa moved with the new female into a revamped enclosure at the far end of the small primate exhibits behind the old Discovery Centre. Meanwhile, Yasmin stayed in the original hillside enclosure. However, in November a visiting Zoochatter saw that Yasmin had moved in with Ember and Gawa while some work was being carried out on the main enclosure.
• 0.1 four-year-old cotton-top tamarin, called Ruby, from Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park. Paired with Dudley's resident thirteen-year-old male, called Rufus.
• 1.1 seventeen and two-year-old (respectively) breeding pair of Sumatran laughingthrush, from Bristol Zoo. They can be found in one of the newly rebuilt aviaries next to the Southern cassowary exhibit.
• 0.1 seven-month-old Arctic fox, called Grace, from Opel Zoo, Germany. Joined DZC’s resident male Arctic fox, called Tommy, in the ex-polar bear Tecton enclosure as part of the breeding programme.
Departures
• 1.0 ten-year-old Sulawesi crested macaque, called Tambo, for London Zoo. Tambo joined DZC in 2017. For a short while before the move, Tambo was living by himself in the newish enclosure next to the main chimpanzee outdoor viewing area, which subsequently became home to the zoo's two black howler monkeys.
• 0.0.3 Sulawesi crested macaques, called Simon, Sophie and Keke, for Drayton Manor Park Zoo. These were the zoo's three remaining Sulawesi crested macaques. Their enclosure was the large hillside paddock to the left of the chairlift.
Births and hatchings
• 0.1 Giant Anteater (Lyra X Bubbles). Named Gizmo. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 0.1 Linne’s two-toed sloth (Flo X Reggie). Named Button. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 1.0 Malayan binturong (Coconut X Elliot). Named Niffler. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 0.0.2 Red-tailed green rat snakes. Named Noodle and Ramen. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 0.0.5 Naked mole rats. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 0.0.2 Black swans (Sylvia X Clive). The first at the zoo for more than 30 years.
• 0.0.24 Macleay's spectre stick insects.
• 0.2 Bactrian camels. Named Jubilee and Queenie.
• 0.0.3 Reindeer. Named Gus (Bracken X Kenny), Genie (Jasmine X Kenny) and Winnie (Sunflower X Kenny).
• 1.2 Barbary sheep. Named Jorge, Claire and Stella.
• 0.0.18 “Bats”. Offspring from both the Egyptian fruit bats and the Seba's short-tailed bats (who share the same enclosure).
• 1.0 Bennett’s wallaby. Named Rupert.
• 1.0 Patagonian mara. Named Grant.
• 0.0.1 Blood python. Named Rango.
• 1.0 Bornean orangutan (Jazz x Djimat) on the 25th of June. Named Jim.
• 1.0 Bornean orangutan (Sprout X Djimat) on the 23rd of July. Named Joe after his maternal grandfather (Jorong) and great grandfather (also Joe). Joe is Sprout’s first offspring. However, Joe is being reared by his grandmother, Jazz, alongside her own new-born, Jim. According to the zoo, this is because after Joe was born, Sprout showed little interest, so Jazz picked him up and has been caring for him ever since. Although, there was suspicion by one venerable Zoochatter that the more dominant and experienced Jazz, with a strong maternal instinct having not long given birth herself, may have taken Joe from Sprout before she had chance to form a maternal bond with him, but of course it is just a possibility, and we have no proof of this.
In addition, Sprout becoming pregnant in the first place was probably another scenario the zoo did not intended for when the new adult male, Djimat, arrived in October 2021, as I think most people would’ve expected Sprout to be on contraception, so she could watch and learn from her mother rearing Jim. We can deduce that either Sprout wasn’t on contraception at all (do studbook keepers decide these things?), or she was, and it didn’t work for whatever reason.
An unideal situation for sure. However, if all turns out well, then it’s still a better outcome than if Joe had to be hand reared. Jazz seems to be coping fine with rearing two at a time, and both youngsters appear to be strong, healthy, and growing well – it’ll be fascinating to follow their progress. It also poses the question that if sprout were to give birth again in the future, would she need to be far away from Jazz (possibly at another collection) for her to raise the new-born herself?
Deaths
• After starting the year off by revealing their fantastically exciting 12-month plan for 2022, the next piece of news to be released was one that was deeply sombre. The zoo announced that their highly fecund colony of 69 Humboldt penguins, which had been established over 30 years ago, had been hit for the first time by a devastating outbreak of avian malaria.
Despite consultation with avian experts and animal collections around the world, weeks of extensive efforts from vets and tireless, round-the-clock care by the zoo’s dedicated bird keepers to treat each individual bird in their fight to save as many as possible, the outbreak could not be stopped – “we know we’ve done all we can.”
The zoo has never given an exact number of how many died, but at the time the BBC reported that around 50 had succumbed so far and the zoo stated that some of the surviving birds were still undergoing treatment.
In early January, a visiting Zoochatter counted only 8 penguins, and throughout the rest of the year a maximum of only 6 were seen by multiple visiting Zoochatters, suggesting that over 60 birds may have died.
This was a truly terrible loss for one of the zoo’s best and most popular exhibits. The zoo started out with just five hand-reared chicks in 1991 and went on to have one of the largest self-sustained colonies in the UK, with many of their penguins leaving to help boost new colonies at collections across the country. The exhibit changed from being a noisy flurry of activity, full of waddling, sunbathing, wing-flapping, occasional squabbling, loud braying and hawing on the land, as well as diving, feeding, and spectacular porpoising in the water, to eerily still and quiet. Keepers must have been heartbroken.
The zoo stated at the time that they plan to introduce additional measures to prevent the event from recurring. Exactly how they will prevent another outbreak in the future remains to be seen.
In both the spring edition of the zoo’s magazine and an end-of-year article written by the Zoo Director, it is mentioned that the zoo hopes to start building up the colony again soon.
There was no mention of any other bird species around the zoo being affected by the disease.
(Please note there may well have been many more arrivals, departures, deaths, births & hatchings during 2022 than those that were announced by the zoo in the lists above).
Other things of note
• Unusually, for several months of the year it appeared that Joao and Daseep, the zoo’s pair of Sumatran tigers, were being kept separate from one another for some reason, with the female (Daseep) seeming to be the one spending a lot more time shut indoors. It isn’t clear if they were being kept separate full time over that period, or if it was just a few days a week or a few hours per day.
In October, a Zoochatter saw a sign on the tiger enclosure explaining that one of the animals was under veterinary care. However, there was no information specifying which animal it was referring to or what the care was for.
That being said, Daseep and Joao have also been seen outdoors together, during people’s visits to the zoo and via the zoo’s tiger webcam, on multiple occasions throughout the year, and both have always appeared to be in great condition, behaving normally, and showing no external signs of poor health, so it’s probably nothing to be too concerned about. However, what is worrying is the continued lack of breeding success with this pair.
• The zoo’s plan to begin work on the tiger project towards the end of the year did not materialise. The tiger project involves extending and rejuvenating the outdoor area, as well as building a new tiger house with visitor viewing and off-show dens. The cause of the delay is unknown. There could be all manner of reasons why, for example the suspected long period of veterinary care being received by one of the tigers, the zoo deciding to be more cautious with funds, new planning restrictions, difficulties sourcing the required building materials, or because the giraffe project has taken much longer to complete than expected etc.
• In October, a visiting Zoochatter asked a keeper about the status of the ~£250,000 pre-COVID plan to construct a new enclosure to return European brown bears to the bear ravine - currently a large grass paddock with a wooded hillside backdrop adjacent to the Bear Ravine Tecton. The bear project was originally intended to be completed with the bears in situ by the end of spring of 2020 but, due to the zoo having to live off their cash reserves to survive being closed during multiple lockdowns as well as reduced visitor numbers throughout 2020 and 2021, the project was suspended until further notice. The keeper’s reply was that while the intention is still there, there is no timescale at the moment. Personally, I think this is a very sensible approach; the zoo is currently prioritising committing resources to upgrading nearly all their existing exhibits rather than to just one new one. The bear project, whilst having the potential to create a huge boost for the zoo as a flagship exhibit, sometimes felt like a luxury project whilst the rest of the zoo was far from perfect.
Furthermore, for a flagship exhibit, the proposed new bear housing on the original pre-pandemic planning documents looked disappointingly small, basic and utilitarian (and interestingly contained only two dens) – perhaps this is due to space constraints, or possibly them not being allowed to build anything that close to the Bear Ravine Tecton that could obstruct or outshine it. If either of those are indeed a genuine restriction, then personally I think it would be better for the new house to go where the children’s farmyard is, with short tunnels that lead under the visitor’s path to allow access into the main bear ravine paddock; similar to some of the polar bear paddocks at YWP. If budget is a factor for the housing, then again, I’d have no problem waiting a bit longer to enable the zoo to gather enough funds to build something more akin to Whipsnade’s new bear house (I also dearly hope that Dudley utilises the lessons learnt from the sad incident that occurred at Whipsnade’s bear enclosure in 2021 when analysing the numerous tall trees in and around the perimeter of the bear ravine paddock).
With all the major improvements to existing exhibits at the zoo over recent years, and with more planned over the next few years to come, I think many Dudley regulars would be more than happy to wait until the zoo has completed more of its mission of giving rest of the site the once over and until they are absolutely ready to make the bear ravine enclosure and housing as good as it possibly can be.
The bear ravine deserves to be transformed into something truly impressive, rather than adequate and basic; something that goes above and beyond and does justice to the possibly the most impressive example of a Tecton structure anywhere in the world.
Finally, I personally think a smaller bear species, such as sun bear, spectacled bear, or Asiatic black bear, would be more suitable than brown bears. My reasoning being that of course it’s better to have a smaller species with ample space than a larger species with just an adequate amount of space - an approach that results in exhibits that are not only better for the animal, but also much more impressive to visitors as well as being much more futureproof and therefore financially worthwhile for the zoo.
• In June, a Zoochatter was told by some workmen who were working on the snowy owl aviary that, after they were finished there, they would be, “starting work on a new enclosure for wild dogs at the bottom of the zoo”. Now of course, when information such as this, that hasn’t come directly from the zoo itself, comes to light, it should always be taken with a pinch of salt. However, it was intriguing nonetheless, especially as the only two areas at the bottom of the zoo it would seem possible to build a large new African wild dog enclosure would be either the chimpanzee enclosure or the unused bear ravine, and neither seems a particularly likely location.
The chimpanzee enclosure, although housing an aging, all female group that are likely being phased out, is one of the zoo’s best exhibits and it feels very unlikely that the chimps would suddenly be moved on. Even when the time comes that the zoo no longer holds the current group of chimps, the outdoor enclosure and house seem as though they would still lend themselves better to remaining as an exhibit for great apes, or even big cats.
Perhaps the plan is to cut the ~1 acre chimpanzee outdoor area in half and use the far end for the African wild dogs? Although personally, I think it would be a huge mistake to downsize the chimpanzee outdoor area while they still have the chimps, as it is one of the zoo's most impressive and futureproof exhibits, and one of the best chimp outdoor areas in the UK.
As for the bear ravine, since it is pretty much unused at the moment, it is the likelier of two locations. However, turning the ravine into an exhibit for African wild dogs would contradict the zoo’s long-held plans of returning bears to it, as well as what a Zoochatter was told by a zookeeper a few months later (see bullet point above).
So the idea of a new African wild dog enclosure being built at the bottom of the zoo remained somewhat puzzling. Could the workmen have meant the zoo’s bush dogs instead, who may need to move to allow work on the tiger project to commence? Yes, that must be it, a simple misunderstanding.
However, the mystery then resurfaced when it was seen on the group of companies' accounts document for 2021 that the zoo, at least at the time, were planning to spend over £100,000 on a new African wild dog enclosure within the next 2 to 3 years. Of course, this doesn’t mean the zoo are definitely going to build a new African wild dog enclosure, it just means that at the time they planned to build one at some stage, which may still be the case, or it may not.
As of yet there’s not been any official confirmation from the zoo, so whatever’s happening either just hasn’t been announced yet, won’t be happening for a while, or isn’t happening at all. All intriguing stuff, but as ever, time will tell.
• The zoo has mentioned that they have also refurbished some of their animal food preparation and service areas in 2022.
• Thanks to the lifting of pandemic restrictions, the zoo was able reinstate their usual events programme in 2022, which included St George’s Day, Under Five’s Days, open-air cinema evenings, Castle Tours and, back after a two-year break, the Santa’s grotto. The zoo was also able to celebrate some not so usual events in 2022, such as the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Commonwealth Games (the zoo was part of The Birmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay route), and their 85th anniversary.
• To mark their 85th year, the zoo held an exhibition within an offshoot of the Castle Creatures exhibit, to “take visitors on a trip down memory lane” using archive photographs and displays of memorabilia covering the DZC’s past eight decades. On Saturday the 7th of May, 2,000 visitors joined the zoo for special 85th anniversary celebrations in the castle courtyard. There were children’s entertainers, costumed characters, face painting, small animal encounters, birds of prey, games, competitions, a giant birthday card for visitors to sign, as well as an anniversary trail to follow around the 40-acre site. There was also a packed programme of animal talks running throughout the day too.
Visitors were encouraged to arrive in either 1930’s or animal themed fancy dress, with all participants entered into a draw to win an animal adoption.
• The very shiny mesh on the front panels of the macaw aviary was painted black to make it much easier to see into.
• The zoo received three bronze BIAZA awards thanks to the hard work of dedicated keepers.
The first award was in the behaviour and welfare category. It was given for the training of two juvenile domestic Bactrian camels using sound and visual cues to separate themselves off from the rest of the herd in preparation for a calm and stress-free transfer day to other collections.
The second award was in the exhibit category. It was given for drawing on the geological significance of the local area and tying in the scientific and evolutionary links between fossils, dinosaurs and modern-day birds in the design of the new Southern cassowary exhibit.
The third award was in the animal husbandry, care and breeding category. It was given for the successful hand-rearing of a Bennett’s wallaby despite the collection having no previous experience of hand rearing a marsupial. The advice and records of the keeper who hand-reared it have since helped three other collections with hand rearing marsupials.
• In a news article in April, the zoo announced they would be able to build a Changing Places adult complex care facility (toilets with specialist equipment for people with complex needs and disabilities) on site after receiving a share of a £150K grant awarded to Dudley Council, thanks to the local authority’s successful application to the Changing Places Toilet Programme fund. It would be built adjacent to the current toilet block near the exit of the lorikeet walkthrough.
The article in April also stated that work would be starting in the autumn, however, autumn came and went, and nothing seemed to be happening. The summer 2022 edition of the zoo’s magazine then stated that the zoo hoped to have the facility up and running before the start of the 2023 season.
The interactive map on the official Changing Places website shows no facility located within the zoo at the time of posting.
According to online planning documents, it also hoped for another Changing Places facility to be installed inside the Discovery Centre once it is renovated and transformed back into the Moat Café. If a Changing Places facility is constructed near the lorikeets and another one in what is currently the Discovery Centre, it would mean there would be one at both the highest and lowest points of the zoo; extremely important for people who rely on these facilities to be able to enjoy their day out.
Visitor numbers
- Visitor numbers for the years 2020 and 2021 have now been added to the graph.
- In 2020, the year most affected by the pandemic, visitor numbers dropped 37% from the previous year.
- In 2021, the zoo was only open for 267 days out of a possible 364 (the zoo is closed Christmas day), which equates to 73% of normal. This includes being closed during the busy Easter period. However, incredibly the zoo still attracted more visitors in 2021 than they did 9 years earlier in 2012.
- In 2022, over January the zoo welcomed 12,673 visitors on site: their best January numbers for 40 years. Over the 6 weeks school summer holidays in 2022, the zoo welcomed around 75,000 people on site.
Tectons
At the start of the year, the zoo said that in 2022 they would be continuing with developing plans to restore four of the site’s listed Tecton structures: the former Tropical Birdhouse, the Queen Mary Restaurant, the Discovery Centre, and the former Elephant House.
In the summer, renovation plans for these buildings were seen online…
• The former Tropical Birdhouse. The intention is to restore the unused Tropical Bird House Tecton to its former condition. They also plan to reveal the bird cages, reinstate the central aviary, repair the balcony and planters, and reinstate the windows and doors as per the original design. The idea is to provide a flexible space to facilitate multiple uses that will allow the zoo to easily convert the space in the future. It will most likely be used as an educational facility in the immediate future once restoration is complete.
It looks like the balcony will not be open to the public due to its location overhanging the lion enclosure. However, the plans do say that at the time the zoo plans to change the animals within the enclosure to allow the safe use of the gallery again.
• The Queen Mary Restaurant.
The whole structure will be restored, repaired, and any unoriginal unnecessary features will be removed. Its function as a restaurant will be extended to include an outside dining area. The interior layout will stay pretty much the same.
• The Discovery Centre. Once repaired and restored, the zoo plans for the Discovery Centre to undergo a massive transformation to turn it back into the Moat Café. Plans for it include new visitor toilets (including a Changing Places facility) as well as a small exhibit of some kind at either end of the seating area.
Annoyingly and rather typically, the backwards-thinking Twentieth Century Society questioned the zoo’s plan of replacing the current non-original glazing with new ‘frameless’ glazing – they’d prefer the new Moat Café to be open-air as it was originally. Personally, I thought the main reason for the open-air café design not working and being abandoned in the first place was because that this is a hill in the UK and most of the year the wind and rain would simply blow through and leave people with a soggy croissant. Happily, however, the Twentieth Century Society then say that if the glazing is absolutely necessary (which, as has already been learnt, it absolutely is in order for it to function as a café), then they encourage the zoo to install the transparent glazing much further back behind the columns – meaning there’d be much less space inside, and less chairs and tables, but at least we’d be able to see the lovely columns from the outside! I understand the Society’s mission is to protect the heritage of these buildings, but there seems to be very little leeway or common sense there sometimes.
• The former Elephant House.
Once it has been properly renovated the zoo hopes to convert the former Elephant House Tecton to house macaques, with the corresponding outdoor area being the existing hillside paddock to the left of the chairlift - accessed via new overhead tunnels.
In November, the zoo revealed that the outside of the former Elephant House Tecton had been given a thorough clean and a fresh coat of paint. Presumably it still needs to be properly restored, but regardless, it looks so much better as it was one of the most decrepit looking of the unrestored Tectons. A gargantuan improvement.
With these plans to restore and make good use of the Tecton structures, the zoo has developed a clear vision and identity for itself as it aims to embrace and take charge of its historical buildings rather than be dragged down by them.
In summary
All in all, 2022 was a year of terrible loss, new arrivals, delightful births, unexpected twists, and enormous progress.
Dudley Zoo had held the unenviable title of having the worst orangutan outdoor facilities in the UK since circa 1987, when even smaller ape accommodation at Chessington was demolished. The need for a new orang enclosure had felt more and more pressing each year since and particularly so over the past 20.
The extremely poor 1960s orangutan enclosures were a dark cloud over the zoo that had hung around for far too long and had become synonymous with the name Dudley Zoo, severely dragging down its image no matter how much the rest of the site improved. Therefore, the orangutan project had become possibly the most urgent and important enclosure improvement in the zoo’s history, so getting it done and done right was crucial.
It’s easy to underestimate the challenges of building a large new orangutan outdoor enclosure and Dudley had to overcome several hurdles before construction of theirs could even begin.
First, they had to gather enough funds. The zoo has said this had always been their biggest roadblock for building the new enclosure rather than any lack of desire or ambition on their part. Dudley Zoo isn’t awash with spare cash and, after a great deal of hard work, only started reaching around 300,000 visitors per year in 2016. They had to rely on the public to help them fundraise, which would be slow and take several years. During their 80th anniversary the zoo kicked off a public appeal with a fundraising Onesie Walk. The zoo then set up a JustGiving page where the public could donate online or via text message and would allocate all income from Zookeeper for a Day, Little Zookeeper, and Animal Feed experiences to the project. The zoo said they would also seek corporate and private sponsorship, as well as grant funding (personally I don’t know whether they achieved this).
Next, they had to acquire planning permission. Easy and inexpensive enough for most zoos, but Dudley Zoo sits on an archeologically and geologically significant conservation area that also contains 12 Grade II listed buildings, a Grade I listed castle, and is covered under Tree Preservation Orders and two Scheduled Monument Orders. Not to mention it also sits on a steep hill that is riddled with large caverns.
Planning permission was finally granted for the enclosure in mid-March 2020. Hooray! Work could now begin. Except it couldn’t because March 2020 was right when the pandemic took hold in the UK. Lockdown and social distancing followed, zoos were forced to close and rely on their cash reserves to survive, and everything stopped. After all the work the zoo had put in this was incredibly cruel. Construction work ended up being delayed by a whole year.
The pandemic forced the zoo to postpone all the upcoming major developments they’d had lined up. However, they were always determined to bring the orangutan enclosure plans to fruition so, once there was light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, the zoo focused on completing the orangutan project first.
Fast-forward to May 2022, when the new enclosure finally opened, and not only did things improve significantly for the orangs, who have become a centrepiece for the zoo, but they have also consequently improved for the zoo as a whole.
I don’t think you’d notice it if you hadn’t known the zoo for a long time, but it feels as though the zoo has had a personality change. Or maybe it’s what Generation Z call a “glow up”. Of course, this by-product was expected, but I gather that the size of the impact has taken many regulars by surprise. Dudley suddenly comes across as a zoo with confidence, no longer weighed down by a nagging issue. When the new orangutan enclosure finally opened back in May, it was as though the zoo threw a huge weight off its shoulders and took a big, deep breath.
The new enclosure is of course the biggest instigator of this change in the zoo’s image, but in addition to the orangutan enclosure, 2022 also saw improvements to many of the smaller exhibits around the zoo. Even though these smaller exhibits, such as the snowy owl aviary, are not Dudley’s biggest attractions to the general public, it’s still extremely gratifying to see the zoo continuing their strategy of quietly going around the site giving every exhibit, large or small, the once over to extend or improve it as much as possible, which they’ve been doing for a number of years now.
However, until the orangutan project was completed these other improvements have not been able to have nearly as much impact on how the zoo is perceived as they might otherwise have done. In metaphorical terms, the old orangutan outdoor areas were the zoo’s glass ceiling which no amount of improvement to the rest of the site could break through. Upon the orang project’s completion, the zoo punched through that ceiling and all those smaller improvements completed in 2022, as well as other improvements, large and small, carried out in the years prior, burst out too; finally able to have their full effect.
Despite not completing everything they planned to do in 2022 within the year, the zoo still accomplished a colossal amount in 12 months and took an enormous step forward. In terms of improvements, 2022 was surely the zoo’s busiest, best, and most pivotal year of its last 50. The zoo is improving year on year and the amalgamation of a succession of largely positive and productive years over the past decade has resulted in the zoo being without doubt the best it has ever been.
That being said, while our wishlists for Dudley seem to shrink year on year, there’s a fair amount at the zoo that still needs to be improved. This mostly includes improving visitor facilities, as well as improving the size of some of the animal housing and outdoor paddocks, however the zoo is evidently well aware as a lot of this is already in the pipeline for the next few years. Reassuringly, it appears that Dudley isn’t resting on its laurels and is proactively sustaining its positive momentum, allowing no part of the site to be left neglected or stagnate while the big projects take centre stage – doing both is key for a zoo to really improve.
The zoo is levelling up all on its own and on that momentous day when the access doors to the new orangutan enclosure were opened, the first orangutan reached the end of the access tunnel, peered out, and passed over the threshold, it was truly one small step for an orang, one giant leap for Dudley Zoo.
Things to look out for in 2023
• Will a female Southern cassowary join the zoo to partner the zoo’s resident male?
• Will the male and female snow leopards be properly introduced to each other?
• Any mention of when work on the tiger project may start, including any more details about the plans.
• Completion of the additional giraffe paddock as well as alterations to the house and viewing areas.
• The giraffes moving into the new additional paddock.
• The arrival of a female snowy owl to partner the zoo’s resident male.
• Will the original large aviary opposite the sloth enclosure be demolished to make way for a small new picnic area?
• Completion of renovations to the Parma wallaby enclosure.
• Will there be tiger cubs this year?
• Completion of the new metro station outside the zoo.
• Will there be Arctic fox pups?
• Will there be any other improvements to visitor facilities?
• Will there be any sea lion births this year?
• The arrival of more Humboldt penguins to rebuild the colony.
• Any changes to the penguin enclosure.
• Will we see work commencing on the renovation of the Queen Mary Restaurant, former Tropical Birdhouse, former Moat Café (aka old Discovery Centre), and former Elephant House Tectons?
• Any more details regarding the zoo’s plan to create new housing for their lar gibbons and for them to have access to the new orangutan outdoor area.
• The installation of new electric charging points in the car park near to the entrance.
• Construction of a Changing Places facility adjacent to the current toilet block near the exit of the lorikeet walkthrough.
Useful/interesting links
• A wishlist/ideas for the future thread can be found here.
• To learn more about the history of the Tecton structures at Dudley Zoo, as well as the work that went into restoring some of them, a superb talk hosted by The Twentieth Century Society can be found here.
• A thread about the history of some of the iconic animals at the zoo can be found here.
P.S. I have decided that I will not be doing the end-of-year summary for the year 2023. Therefore, if anyone is interested in writing it, could you please send me a private message.
Summary of Dudley Zoo and Castle in 2022
“One small step for an orang…”
“The time has come,”
the ‘saurus said,
“To talk of other things:
Of zoos and chimps and Arctic fox,
Of capuchins and penguins…”
I.e., the traditional babble, prattle, and yammer about all that went on at Dudley Zoo over the foregoing year.
Upgraded, refurbished, new and future exhibits
After an unsettling previous 2 years, to the surprise and subsequent excitement of many, the zoo began the year by revealing a sizable 12-month plan to expand and improve many of the facilities for animals and visitors in 2022. This included…
- Completion of the new outdoor orangutan enclosure.
- Beginning and completion of a new additional giraffe paddock and alterations to the existing house.
- Beginning the extension and refurbishment of the tiger enclosure, as well as construction of a new house.
- Creation of a small new picnic area opposite the sloth exhibit with a view into the off-show Big Ben Cavern (which may involve demolition of a large aviary).
- Securing funding to build a Changing Places adult complex care facility.
- Continuing to develop plans to restore four of the listed Tecton structures.
- Continuing to work alongside Dudley Council to form a maintenance plan for the castle.
- The arrival of “a few” new animals to the collection.
• Orangutans.
After work on a new additional outdoor enclosure for the zoo’s Bornean orangutans began in March/April of 2021, in May of 2022 the zoo announced that the enclosure was complete, and the orangs were busy exploring their new space.
So, what do you get for a cost of ~£500,000 and a build time of 12 months?
Well, the enclosure covers a large area, an additional 1,300 square metres according to the zoo, that to the naked eye appears to be around four times larger than the larger of the two old outdoor areas. As for the perimeter fence, think Monkey World style fencing: high mesh with a curved metal overhang and an electrical deterrent.
Below: A birds-eye-view showing the new outdoor area next to the original 1960s outdoor areas. View attachment 606483 Photo credit: Dudley Zoo and Castle
There’s a large, complex, new climbing structure, 40m (131 ft) long and 7m (23 ft) high according to the zoo, constructed from numerous vertical machined logs, a.k.a. ‘telegraph poles’, which are connected to one another by more telegraph poles positioned at a multitude of different angles. More importantly, the whole structure is criss-crossed with a plethora of ropes leading in nearly every direction, allowing the animals to negotiate the length of the structure using the ropes alone if they choose. The apparatus also consists of a large, elevated heated shelter, plus several large cargo nets, hammocks, and platforms. The rigid aspects of the climbing structure are quite openly spaced, rather than being dense or tightly packed, so there is plenty of room for swinging and brachiation. Another thing to note is that the climbing structure covers a very large proportion of the enclosure’s floor area, so there is very little wasted space for the arboreal apes.
There’s no argument that the climbing structures would’ve had a nicer, more naturalistic aesthetic from a visitor’s perspective if natural tree trunks had been used instead of telegraph poles, but then perhaps telegraph poles have the advantage of being sturdier, safer, more weather resistant, more resistant to wear and tear, longer lasting, easier to source in large numbers, easier to transport and maybe cheaper too.
Greenery-wise, the floor of enclosure is covered by soft grass, with patches of low natural vegetation that the orangs have been seen picking and eating. The lushness of the grass is quite astonishing given the very short growing season (the ground was still bare dirt in mid-May) and a very hot summer. It’s possible that more foliage may spring up naturally over 2023, or the zoo may decide to plant more themselves - making the enclosure look a bit more naturalistic, while not being a desperate need, is certainly something it could benefit from.
Below: A view from one of the viewing windows showing approximately half of the new outdoor area around 3 months after opening. View attachment 606484 Photo credit: GiraffeJack10
Many of the exhibits at Dudley have their own topographical individualism in one way or another, and the new orangutan outdoor area is no different. The enclosure slopes gently downwards from West to East, and it’s this elevation change, combined with the tall climbing structures, that affords the orangs excellent views over the fence. In their old outdoor enclosures, the large, terraced viewing area and grass bank directly in front of them meant the orangs couldn’t see further than around 50ft, which must have severely restricted their idea of the world around them, whereas the new enclosure is almost surrounded by mature trees and, if they look through said trees, they can now see the horizon.
Overall, viewing opportunities for visitors are good; viewing windows span the entire elevated side of the enclosure, meaning the apes are at visitors’ eye level when they are at height. However, viewing opportunities could be better, because walking around it does feel as though the enclosure is missing another viewing window or two on its lower border. Although, this may be deliberate if the zoo decided
not to have ground-level viewing windows because of the risk of the orangs scratching them.
I appreciate that others may disagree, but one of the nice things about the new enclosure is the absence of gimmicks. No wide, space-consuming perimeter moats or unnaturalistic, unnecessary waterfalls; no concrete trees, plastic plants, or mock rock; no over-the-top theming or native knick-knacks (i.e. clutter); no patronising “immersive” music or grandiloquent name. Just the provision of the maximum amount of space and climbing opportunities possible for the animals.
Whilst constructing the new outdoor area, the zoo also turned their attention to the orangutan house. The building had brand new insulated corrugated cladding installed to its exterior walls; a big improvement on the algae-stained half-round timbers, installed in 2010 after the house was extended in 2009, that covered it before. The zoo has said that in general they are trying to make their animal houses more energy efficient.
Two new animal access tunnels link the existing indoor areas to the new enclosure.
With regards to the wellbeing of the zoo’s orangutans, the significance of the new enclosure is enormous. By providing more height, space, and climbing opportunities, as well as far-reaching 360-degree views, it has been nothing short of life-changing for the zoo’s four adult orangutans. The two adult females, Jazz and Sprout, have been at Dudley all their lives. As for the two adult males, Benji arrived at Dudley in 1996, spending most of his time since then living in one of the worst orangutan outdoor enclosures in Europe, and Djimat arrived at Dudley in 2021 from similarly poor orangutan facilities overseas.
The zoo said that Jazz and Djimat were the first ones to explore their new surroundings, before Sprout joined them a short time later, while solitary male Benji took a few days to pluck up the courage to venture out.
The zoo also said that seeing them in their new space for the first time was a very emotional moment for staff.
A few months after the orangs moved into the new enclosure, two male orangutans were born. These births mean the zoo is now home to six (4.2) Bornean orangutans:
- Benji. Male. Born 6th November 1977, Duisburg Zoo. Parents are Max (m) X Susi (f). Arrived at Dudley on 2nd February 1996 from Dublin Zoo.
- Djimat. Male. Born 21st July 1988, Rotterdam Zoo. Parents are Chiko (m) X Petra (f). Arrived at Dudley on 7th October 2021 from Aalborg Zoo.
- Jazz. Female. Born 11th November 1991, Dudley Zoo. Parents are Joe (m) X Azimat (f).
- Sprout. Female. Born 30th March 2011, Dudley Zoo. Parents are Jorong (m) X Jazz (f).
- Jim. Male. Born 25th June 2022, Dudley Zoo. Parents are Djimat (m) X Jazz (f).
- Joe. Male. Born 23rd July 2022, Dudley Zoo. Parents are Djimat (m) X Sprout (f).
There were several changes around the outside of the new enclosure too.
A new wooden set of stairs were constructed that link the far end of the visitor’s path in front of the old outdoor areas to the main pathway at the top of the grass bank. A landing a quarter of the way up, at the point where staircase turns ninety degrees to the left, allows visitors to pause and get another wide view of the enclosure from a different angle, albeit through mesh.
Large, bright fact files on each of the four adult orangs were created and installed along the visitor’s path in front of the old outdoor areas - the zoo is now proudly drawing attention to their orangs.
A local contemporary graffiti artist produced large artworks of a juvenile, adult male, and adult female orangutan on wooden fencing next to a new “conservation hut” attached to the new enclosure, similar to one that stands in the lemur walkthrough, that contains interactive educational displays and information about palm oil. It also contains a family tree of the zoo’s orangutans. In addition, another piece by the graffiti artist can be found nearer the indoor viewing areas that depicts a wheelbarrow full of baby orangutans. This is to emphasise the many orphaned orangutans that result from illegal hunting and deforestation who end up at rescue and rehabilitation centres.
Further along there is a large aerial photograph, attached to large access gates, showing the impact of deforestation in Borneo, as well as facts and figures on deforestation and the illegal wildlife trade.
A large new steel statue was installed next to the new enclosure too, specifically, in the space between the perimeter fence and the public stand-off barrier at the North-Eastern corner. The piece features 100 steel poles, of which 97 are cut to knee-height to represent deforestation since 97% of orangutans' natural habitat has been lost, leaving only 3% left.
Of the three remaining 6m tall poles, a 2m tall female Bornean orangutan sculpture is holding onto two, trying to get to her youngster who is clinging on to the final third pole but, due to deforestation, is just out of reach.
The idea is that this powerful, easy to understand, visual message will instantly and dramatically highlight the plight of orangutans in the wild to everyone that sees it, quickly hammering home their desperate situation.
It is good to see when zoos go the extra mile to fulfil one of their other major responsibilities as a zoo - raising public awareness of the threats facing their animals’ wild counterparts and promoting conservation - and Dudley’s approach seems far more convincing and effective than say … a multi-million-pound theme park for example. Doing this also demonstrates to the public that the zoo’s intentions are in exactly the right place.
The new sculpture follows on from the ring-tailed lemur sculpture in the lemur walkthrough, built and installed in 2020 by the same artist, that has a similarly powerful conservation message behind it.
In addition to drastically improving the orangutan facilities at home, the zoo has pledged £100,000 over five years to the Sintang Orangutan Centre (SOC) in Indonesia, which specialises in the rescue, rehabilitation and release of orangutans back into the wild, alongside raising awareness and educating local people in a bid to reduce deforestation and stop illegal poaching. The zoo’s support has helped the centre fund the building of a second Forest School - a two-hectare jungle enclosure which will be used to give around eight orangutans the chance to learn basic survival skills, such as climbing, foraging for food and nest building, before they’re released into protected wild forests. Hopefully the zoo places some information about the work of this in-situ rescue centre near the new sculpture as well. The SOC has its own website, and you can follow them on their YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram pages.
It should be noted that the new outdoor area is an additional one. This is because the zoo needs to keep using the two old outdoor areas (originally split into 3), which have now been merged into one by opening a keeper access door between them. This is due to the fact they have two ‘groups’ of orangs, as Benji, the zoo’s non-breeding adult male, lives by himself. The zoo manages this by regularly rotating the two ‘groups’ between the new and old outdoor enclosures. Djimat, the zoo’s breeding adult male, lives happily alongside the females and youngsters; the zoo says he is a very relaxed individual who has lived in family units before moving to DZC.
Just because the zoo has provided the orangutans with an additional outdoor area doesn’t mean they plan to stop there. During the year the zoo restated that now the new outdoor enclosure is completed, the next step in improving the orangutan facilities is to secure further funding to “redevelop and combine” the original outdoor areas. In addition to that, in the summer 2022 edition of the zoo’s ZooNooz magazine, it was stated that the final stage of redevelopment of the ape house, scheduled to begin in 2025, will see the removal of moat, the creation of additional indoor accommodation, and an extension to the larger of the 1960s outdoor areas.
Finally, in the summer edition of the zoo’s ZooNooz magazine the zoo also said that they hope to construct new housing for their lar gibbons, with the aim for them to have access to the new orangutan outdoor area in the near future. Personally, Jim and Joe interacting with the gibbons is something I can’t wait to see.
• Former howler monkey enclosure.
During a visit in early February, a Zoochatter saw that the zoo’s aging pair of black howler monkeys, Dargie and Avyanna, had moved from their large Tecton enclosure, on the right of the ex-polar bear Tecton, into a recently built enclosure near the main chimpanzee outdoor viewing area. It was also observed that all the old climbing structure in the howler monkey’s former Tecton home had been demolished. The old climbing structure was a very good size but had quite a spindly and homespun appearance, and recognisable by its haphazard overabundance of wooden ladders: like a riot at window cleaners convention.
In late February, the zoo announced publicly what we already knew, i.e. the howler monkeys had moved and they were busy redeveloping their former enclosure. However, the zoo also stated that a new species would be making the remodelled enclosure its home, although they stayed tight-lipped as to its identity.
Another Zoochatter visited in late March and saw that a huge wooden climbing frame had been built to replace the old one.
All this was incredibly intriguing. What in all of Earth’s species was going in there? The answer to this question was one that was very difficult to narrow down since the new enclosure looked like almost any species of small-to-medium sized land mammal, one that is either primarily arboreal or one that is terrestrial with a strong ability to climb, would be suitable for it. At this stage it also wasn’t known whether the new species would be using the external housing used by the howler monkeys or the original Tecton dens that have been used by bears and tigers in the past.
Then, on the 1st of April, the zoo finally put us out of our misery by announcing the new species was a Eurasian wolverine - the first in the zoo’s history. And they weren’t foolin’; a three-year-old female, called Helga, had arrived from Whipsnade Zoo the day before.
This news came as a very pleasant surprise to many locals and Dudley regulars. Wolverines are a fantastic new species for the zoo and Dudley is currently one of only six collections in the UK to house this species and the only holder within the Midlands.
So, what does the completed enclosure look like? Well, most obvious is the enormous new climbing structure. Far larger, taller and more impressive than the old one, it utilises much more of enclosure’s volume and provides plenty of climbing opportunities. It appears to be well-made too. It has a far chunkier, more substantial, look to it than the old structure and appears to have been constructed with much more care, thought, and expertise. The structure also consists of platforms, raised shelters, and various enrichment devices.
A good-sized pool has been constructed too, as well as a small shelter at ground-level towards the rear of the enclosure.
Size-wise, it’s nowhere near the biggest wolverine enclosure in the UK but it is still of reasonable size.
Being dominated by that huge climbing structure and surrounded by high Tecton walls means the enclosure definitely isn’t your typical naturalistic wolverine enclosure that you’d find in the UK. However, given the abundance of rocks, small plants, tall shrubs, small tree saplings, grass, dirt and the steep grassy backdrop, it still succeeds in managing to look fairly naturalistic.
The howler monkey’s indoor housing was a building situated outside the Tecton enclosure; linked to the old outdoor climbing structure via a rope bridge. However, the wolverine has been given use of the original Tecton dens (presumably a good size as they have previously housed multiple bears at the same time). The external housing formerly used by the howler monkeys is no longer connected to the enclosure, because the rope bridge was not reattached to the new climbing structure; but is still home to the zoo’s six-banded armadillos.
• Giraffes.
Other than regular maintenance and the installation of feeding poles and a wooden platform (used for talks and zookeeper experiences) the giraffe house and paddock has changed little since its construction in the early 1960s. I imagine the paddock was first commonly perceived as being on the small side for its inhabitants relatively soon after its inception, especially as the late 1960s and early 1970s was the genesis era for the safari park in the UK, including the nearby West Midlands Safari Park. Since then, while of course never seeming like a terrible or cruel enclosure, the giraffe paddock at Dudley has felt progressively smaller as the years go by.
However, there has always been a large, and largely disused, space behind the giraffe house, that many people over the years have thought should be utilised in order to provide the giraffes with potentially double their current outdoor space. However, the giraffe house completely shuts off the original paddock from the unused area behind it, so this was always much easier said than done.
At the start of the year, the zoo announced their plan to commence and complete work to transform this unused land at the rear of the house into a second paddock. This would also include altering the interior of the existing house, by extending the giraffe stabling into part of the visitor viewing area, which spans the length of the house and takes up about a third of its width, to give the giraffes access to more of the indoor space as well as to allow them access into the new paddock through a new giraffe-sized door in the rear wall. In addition, a new visitor walkway and viewing area would be created along the outside of the building.
At the beginning of 2022, the zoo stated that they hoped to have the giraffe project “ready for summer”, but for whatever reason, most likely because of delays with the supply of construction materials or to reduce stress while one of the giraffes underwent veterinary care, this did not happen. Work didn’t even begin until late summer and wasn’t complete by the end of 2022.
So, what did happen in 2022? Well, thanks to Zoochatter visit reports and progress photos, we at least know that, between August and November, the space behind the house was cleared and flattened, and most of the perimeter fencing was installed, including a large gabion wall along the right-hand side. As for the house, the raised flooring of the rear section of the indoor viewing area was lowered to match the level of the rest of the house and the railing that divided the lower front and upper rear sections of the viewing area was removed. The old stand-off barrier was also removed, however a new one, half its length, was installed in its place. When it reaches the halfway point of the old stand-off barrier, the new stand-off barrier then turns 90 degrees to the right and connects to the rear wall, therefore cutting the old indoor viewing area in half.
In addition, a new covered viewing area, that is joined to the back of the giraffe house and looks into the new paddock, was constructed. Presumably it will be accessed via a new visitor-sized doorway cut into the rear wall of the giraffe house within what remains of the indoor viewing area.
At the end of 2022, the zoo had 1.2 giraffes: Kubwa (pure Rothschild’s bull), Josie (hybrid) and Kira (hybrid, born September 2019).
In the past, the giraffe enclosure has functioned as mixed exhibit too, holding zebra and Arabian gazelles on separate occasions alongside the giraffes during the mid-to-late 1990’s, with their housing being a small building located within the original paddock that is attached to the outside of the giraffe house. Before moving to the giraffe paddock, the Arabian gazelles could be found in what is now the Parma wallaby enclosure.
• Snowy owl aviary.
Over the summer months, the old snowy owl aviary, which must’ve been at least 25 years old, was completely demolished and a new one of similar, possibly identical, size was constructed in its place.
The tall new structure is formed of timber-framed sides and a steel-framed roof supported with vertical wooden beams. The frame is covered in steel mesh apart from the addition of new viewing windows to the front at visitor level – fortunately the aviary is located in a shady area so reflections shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
The interior of the aviary, which sits on a steep grassy hillside, was also refurbished. This included cutting away a bit more of the slope, which ascends towards the rear, at the front of the aviary in order to create a larger flat area, which was then covered in a layer of gravel. Several tall vertical posts and horizontal branches for perching were installed, as well as a sheltered perch in both rear corners.
A Zoochatter was told by someone on social media that Dudley’s last snowy owl passed away in 2021. In August, a new male snowy owl, named Thunder, arrived at Dudley and made the newly rebuilt and refurbished aviary its home. Whilst it was under construction, another Zoochatter was told by workmen that the aviary was being rebuilt to hold a new pair of snowy owls.
My only disappointment is that the opportunity wasn’t taken to dramatically increase the size of the aviary, but perhaps restrictions didn’t allow for that as I don’t think they are allowed to block the view of any of the castle walls with large aviaries or fencing.
• Aviaries.
Opposite the sloth enclosure, between the cassowary enclosure on the left and the otter enclosure on the right, is a long row of adjoined aviaries, which I don’t think have changed much in over 20 years. Furthest left in the row are the smallest aviaries, then some slightly taller aviaries in the middle, then a much larger single aviary on the right.
In 2022 the smallest aviaries and the middle aviaries were completely demolished.
The smallest aviaries were then rebuilt to the same height as the original middle aviaries.
The middle aviaries were then rebuilt to the same height as the large single aviary on the right and merged into one single aviary, meaning there are now two large aviaries (the rebuilt one in the middle and the original one on the right) standing side by side.
Another thing to note is that the rebuilt middle aviary is no longer adjoined to the large aviary on the right as it was originally. This may be to do with the zoo’s 12-month plan, which was revealed at the beginning of the year, that included creating a small new picnic area opposite the sloth exhibit with a view into the off-show Big Ben Cavern. Sadly, this likely involves demolition of the large aviary on the right. At the time of writing, I don’t know if the zoo has begun demolishing the large aviary on the right yet, or if it is still their plan to do so at all, although if they weren’t planning on permanently demolishing it then you’d think they’d have demolished and rebuilt it at the same time as the other aviaries.
• Parma wallabies.
In early October, a Zoochatter visited and saw that the Parma wallaby enclosure was in the midst of a major refurbishment. At that point the wallabies were off-show and the fencing along the left-hand-side of the enclosure, bordering the Barbary sheep enclosure, had been taken down. A few days later, another Zoochatter visited and saw that the old housing had been almost completely demolished – a building that had been looking in need of at least a new roof for quite a while and more recently appeared to have been covered with some blue tarpaulin, presumably to prevent leaks.
Another Zoochatter visited in early December and observed that an entirely new house, insulated in green corrugated cladding with a Parma wallaby-sized door in the front of it, was under construction in the top right-hand corner of the enclosure (the old house had been in the top left-hand corner).
After that, the entire paddock was extended forward into the old stand-off area, with new fencing at the front of the paddock too (which may or may not contain viewing windows instead of mesh).
The refurb’ was not completed by the end of 2022, but it is yet another example of an old enclosure, that hadn’t changed for decades, being thoroughly refurbished and improved.
Arrivals
• 0.1 green aracari, called Dini. Arrived at DZC at the end of 2021 but went on-show in 2022 in the Queen Mary aviary alongside the zoo’s resident scarlet ibis, mandarin ducks, ringed teals and Puna ibis.
• 0.1 three-year-old wolverine, called Helga, from Whipsnade Zoo.
• 0.0.7 sun conures. They can be found in the macaw aviary between the otters and the lemur walkthrough.
• 1.0 two-year-old snowy owl, called Thunder, from Drayton Manor Theme Park.
• 0.1 one-year-old red panda, called Ember, from Blackpool Zoo. Paired with Dudley's resident seven-year-old male, called Gawa. Gawa arrived at Dudley in 2016 from Rotterdam Zoo as a companion for Dudley's elderly (now 17 y/o) female red panda, called Yasmin, in the hillside enclosure opposite the giraffe paddock. However, after Ember’s arrival, Gawa moved with the new female into a revamped enclosure at the far end of the small primate exhibits behind the old Discovery Centre. Meanwhile, Yasmin stayed in the original hillside enclosure. However, in November a visiting Zoochatter saw that Yasmin had moved in with Ember and Gawa while some work was being carried out on the main enclosure.
• 0.1 four-year-old cotton-top tamarin, called Ruby, from Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park. Paired with Dudley's resident thirteen-year-old male, called Rufus.
• 1.1 seventeen and two-year-old (respectively) breeding pair of Sumatran laughingthrush, from Bristol Zoo. They can be found in one of the newly rebuilt aviaries next to the Southern cassowary exhibit.
• 0.1 seven-month-old Arctic fox, called Grace, from Opel Zoo, Germany. Joined DZC’s resident male Arctic fox, called Tommy, in the ex-polar bear Tecton enclosure as part of the breeding programme.
Departures
• 1.0 ten-year-old Sulawesi crested macaque, called Tambo, for London Zoo. Tambo joined DZC in 2017. For a short while before the move, Tambo was living by himself in the newish enclosure next to the main chimpanzee outdoor viewing area, which subsequently became home to the zoo's two black howler monkeys.
• 0.0.3 Sulawesi crested macaques, called Simon, Sophie and Keke, for Drayton Manor Park Zoo. These were the zoo's three remaining Sulawesi crested macaques. Their enclosure was the large hillside paddock to the left of the chairlift.
Births and hatchings
• 0.1 Giant Anteater (Lyra X Bubbles). Named Gizmo. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 0.1 Linne’s two-toed sloth (Flo X Reggie). Named Button. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 1.0 Malayan binturong (Coconut X Elliot). Named Niffler. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 0.0.2 Red-tailed green rat snakes. Named Noodle and Ramen. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 0.0.5 Naked mole rats. The first in the zoo’s history.
• 0.0.2 Black swans (Sylvia X Clive). The first at the zoo for more than 30 years.
• 0.0.24 Macleay's spectre stick insects.
• 0.2 Bactrian camels. Named Jubilee and Queenie.
• 0.0.3 Reindeer. Named Gus (Bracken X Kenny), Genie (Jasmine X Kenny) and Winnie (Sunflower X Kenny).
• 1.2 Barbary sheep. Named Jorge, Claire and Stella.
• 0.0.18 “Bats”. Offspring from both the Egyptian fruit bats and the Seba's short-tailed bats (who share the same enclosure).
• 1.0 Bennett’s wallaby. Named Rupert.
• 1.0 Patagonian mara. Named Grant.
• 0.0.1 Blood python. Named Rango.
• 1.0 Bornean orangutan (Jazz x Djimat) on the 25th of June. Named Jim.
• 1.0 Bornean orangutan (Sprout X Djimat) on the 23rd of July. Named Joe after his maternal grandfather (Jorong) and great grandfather (also Joe). Joe is Sprout’s first offspring. However, Joe is being reared by his grandmother, Jazz, alongside her own new-born, Jim. According to the zoo, this is because after Joe was born, Sprout showed little interest, so Jazz picked him up and has been caring for him ever since. Although, there was suspicion by one venerable Zoochatter that the more dominant and experienced Jazz, with a strong maternal instinct having not long given birth herself, may have taken Joe from Sprout before she had chance to form a maternal bond with him, but of course it is just a possibility, and we have no proof of this.
In addition, Sprout becoming pregnant in the first place was probably another scenario the zoo did not intended for when the new adult male, Djimat, arrived in October 2021, as I think most people would’ve expected Sprout to be on contraception, so she could watch and learn from her mother rearing Jim. We can deduce that either Sprout wasn’t on contraception at all (do studbook keepers decide these things?), or she was, and it didn’t work for whatever reason.
An unideal situation for sure. However, if all turns out well, then it’s still a better outcome than if Joe had to be hand reared. Jazz seems to be coping fine with rearing two at a time, and both youngsters appear to be strong, healthy, and growing well – it’ll be fascinating to follow their progress. It also poses the question that if sprout were to give birth again in the future, would she need to be far away from Jazz (possibly at another collection) for her to raise the new-born herself?
Deaths
• After starting the year off by revealing their fantastically exciting 12-month plan for 2022, the next piece of news to be released was one that was deeply sombre. The zoo announced that their highly fecund colony of 69 Humboldt penguins, which had been established over 30 years ago, had been hit for the first time by a devastating outbreak of avian malaria.
Despite consultation with avian experts and animal collections around the world, weeks of extensive efforts from vets and tireless, round-the-clock care by the zoo’s dedicated bird keepers to treat each individual bird in their fight to save as many as possible, the outbreak could not be stopped – “we know we’ve done all we can.”
The zoo has never given an exact number of how many died, but at the time the BBC reported that around 50 had succumbed so far and the zoo stated that some of the surviving birds were still undergoing treatment.
In early January, a visiting Zoochatter counted only 8 penguins, and throughout the rest of the year a maximum of only 6 were seen by multiple visiting Zoochatters, suggesting that over 60 birds may have died.
This was a truly terrible loss for one of the zoo’s best and most popular exhibits. The zoo started out with just five hand-reared chicks in 1991 and went on to have one of the largest self-sustained colonies in the UK, with many of their penguins leaving to help boost new colonies at collections across the country. The exhibit changed from being a noisy flurry of activity, full of waddling, sunbathing, wing-flapping, occasional squabbling, loud braying and hawing on the land, as well as diving, feeding, and spectacular porpoising in the water, to eerily still and quiet. Keepers must have been heartbroken.
The zoo stated at the time that they plan to introduce additional measures to prevent the event from recurring. Exactly how they will prevent another outbreak in the future remains to be seen.
In both the spring edition of the zoo’s magazine and an end-of-year article written by the Zoo Director, it is mentioned that the zoo hopes to start building up the colony again soon.
There was no mention of any other bird species around the zoo being affected by the disease.
(Please note there may well have been many more arrivals, departures, deaths, births & hatchings during 2022 than those that were announced by the zoo in the lists above).
Other things of note
• Unusually, for several months of the year it appeared that Joao and Daseep, the zoo’s pair of Sumatran tigers, were being kept separate from one another for some reason, with the female (Daseep) seeming to be the one spending a lot more time shut indoors. It isn’t clear if they were being kept separate full time over that period, or if it was just a few days a week or a few hours per day.
In October, a Zoochatter saw a sign on the tiger enclosure explaining that one of the animals was under veterinary care. However, there was no information specifying which animal it was referring to or what the care was for.
That being said, Daseep and Joao have also been seen outdoors together, during people’s visits to the zoo and via the zoo’s tiger webcam, on multiple occasions throughout the year, and both have always appeared to be in great condition, behaving normally, and showing no external signs of poor health, so it’s probably nothing to be too concerned about. However, what is worrying is the continued lack of breeding success with this pair.
• The zoo’s plan to begin work on the tiger project towards the end of the year did not materialise. The tiger project involves extending and rejuvenating the outdoor area, as well as building a new tiger house with visitor viewing and off-show dens. The cause of the delay is unknown. There could be all manner of reasons why, for example the suspected long period of veterinary care being received by one of the tigers, the zoo deciding to be more cautious with funds, new planning restrictions, difficulties sourcing the required building materials, or because the giraffe project has taken much longer to complete than expected etc.
• In October, a visiting Zoochatter asked a keeper about the status of the ~£250,000 pre-COVID plan to construct a new enclosure to return European brown bears to the bear ravine - currently a large grass paddock with a wooded hillside backdrop adjacent to the Bear Ravine Tecton. The bear project was originally intended to be completed with the bears in situ by the end of spring of 2020 but, due to the zoo having to live off their cash reserves to survive being closed during multiple lockdowns as well as reduced visitor numbers throughout 2020 and 2021, the project was suspended until further notice. The keeper’s reply was that while the intention is still there, there is no timescale at the moment. Personally, I think this is a very sensible approach; the zoo is currently prioritising committing resources to upgrading nearly all their existing exhibits rather than to just one new one. The bear project, whilst having the potential to create a huge boost for the zoo as a flagship exhibit, sometimes felt like a luxury project whilst the rest of the zoo was far from perfect.
Furthermore, for a flagship exhibit, the proposed new bear housing on the original pre-pandemic planning documents looked disappointingly small, basic and utilitarian (and interestingly contained only two dens) – perhaps this is due to space constraints, or possibly them not being allowed to build anything that close to the Bear Ravine Tecton that could obstruct or outshine it. If either of those are indeed a genuine restriction, then personally I think it would be better for the new house to go where the children’s farmyard is, with short tunnels that lead under the visitor’s path to allow access into the main bear ravine paddock; similar to some of the polar bear paddocks at YWP. If budget is a factor for the housing, then again, I’d have no problem waiting a bit longer to enable the zoo to gather enough funds to build something more akin to Whipsnade’s new bear house (I also dearly hope that Dudley utilises the lessons learnt from the sad incident that occurred at Whipsnade’s bear enclosure in 2021 when analysing the numerous tall trees in and around the perimeter of the bear ravine paddock).
With all the major improvements to existing exhibits at the zoo over recent years, and with more planned over the next few years to come, I think many Dudley regulars would be more than happy to wait until the zoo has completed more of its mission of giving rest of the site the once over and until they are absolutely ready to make the bear ravine enclosure and housing as good as it possibly can be.
The bear ravine deserves to be transformed into something truly impressive, rather than adequate and basic; something that goes above and beyond and does justice to the possibly the most impressive example of a Tecton structure anywhere in the world.
Finally, I personally think a smaller bear species, such as sun bear, spectacled bear, or Asiatic black bear, would be more suitable than brown bears. My reasoning being that of course it’s better to have a smaller species with ample space than a larger species with just an adequate amount of space - an approach that results in exhibits that are not only better for the animal, but also much more impressive to visitors as well as being much more futureproof and therefore financially worthwhile for the zoo.
• In June, a Zoochatter was told by some workmen who were working on the snowy owl aviary that, after they were finished there, they would be, “starting work on a new enclosure for wild dogs at the bottom of the zoo”. Now of course, when information such as this, that hasn’t come directly from the zoo itself, comes to light, it should always be taken with a pinch of salt. However, it was intriguing nonetheless, especially as the only two areas at the bottom of the zoo it would seem possible to build a large new African wild dog enclosure would be either the chimpanzee enclosure or the unused bear ravine, and neither seems a particularly likely location.
The chimpanzee enclosure, although housing an aging, all female group that are likely being phased out, is one of the zoo’s best exhibits and it feels very unlikely that the chimps would suddenly be moved on. Even when the time comes that the zoo no longer holds the current group of chimps, the outdoor enclosure and house seem as though they would still lend themselves better to remaining as an exhibit for great apes, or even big cats.
Perhaps the plan is to cut the ~1 acre chimpanzee outdoor area in half and use the far end for the African wild dogs? Although personally, I think it would be a huge mistake to downsize the chimpanzee outdoor area while they still have the chimps, as it is one of the zoo's most impressive and futureproof exhibits, and one of the best chimp outdoor areas in the UK.
As for the bear ravine, since it is pretty much unused at the moment, it is the likelier of two locations. However, turning the ravine into an exhibit for African wild dogs would contradict the zoo’s long-held plans of returning bears to it, as well as what a Zoochatter was told by a zookeeper a few months later (see bullet point above).
So the idea of a new African wild dog enclosure being built at the bottom of the zoo remained somewhat puzzling. Could the workmen have meant the zoo’s bush dogs instead, who may need to move to allow work on the tiger project to commence? Yes, that must be it, a simple misunderstanding.
However, the mystery then resurfaced when it was seen on the group of companies' accounts document for 2021 that the zoo, at least at the time, were planning to spend over £100,000 on a new African wild dog enclosure within the next 2 to 3 years. Of course, this doesn’t mean the zoo are definitely going to build a new African wild dog enclosure, it just means that at the time they planned to build one at some stage, which may still be the case, or it may not.
As of yet there’s not been any official confirmation from the zoo, so whatever’s happening either just hasn’t been announced yet, won’t be happening for a while, or isn’t happening at all. All intriguing stuff, but as ever, time will tell.
• The zoo has mentioned that they have also refurbished some of their animal food preparation and service areas in 2022.
• Thanks to the lifting of pandemic restrictions, the zoo was able reinstate their usual events programme in 2022, which included St George’s Day, Under Five’s Days, open-air cinema evenings, Castle Tours and, back after a two-year break, the Santa’s grotto. The zoo was also able to celebrate some not so usual events in 2022, such as the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Commonwealth Games (the zoo was part of The Birmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay route), and their 85th anniversary.
• To mark their 85th year, the zoo held an exhibition within an offshoot of the Castle Creatures exhibit, to “take visitors on a trip down memory lane” using archive photographs and displays of memorabilia covering the DZC’s past eight decades. On Saturday the 7th of May, 2,000 visitors joined the zoo for special 85th anniversary celebrations in the castle courtyard. There were children’s entertainers, costumed characters, face painting, small animal encounters, birds of prey, games, competitions, a giant birthday card for visitors to sign, as well as an anniversary trail to follow around the 40-acre site. There was also a packed programme of animal talks running throughout the day too.
Visitors were encouraged to arrive in either 1930’s or animal themed fancy dress, with all participants entered into a draw to win an animal adoption.
• The very shiny mesh on the front panels of the macaw aviary was painted black to make it much easier to see into.
• The zoo received three bronze BIAZA awards thanks to the hard work of dedicated keepers.
The first award was in the behaviour and welfare category. It was given for the training of two juvenile domestic Bactrian camels using sound and visual cues to separate themselves off from the rest of the herd in preparation for a calm and stress-free transfer day to other collections.
The second award was in the exhibit category. It was given for drawing on the geological significance of the local area and tying in the scientific and evolutionary links between fossils, dinosaurs and modern-day birds in the design of the new Southern cassowary exhibit.
The third award was in the animal husbandry, care and breeding category. It was given for the successful hand-rearing of a Bennett’s wallaby despite the collection having no previous experience of hand rearing a marsupial. The advice and records of the keeper who hand-reared it have since helped three other collections with hand rearing marsupials.
• In a news article in April, the zoo announced they would be able to build a Changing Places adult complex care facility (toilets with specialist equipment for people with complex needs and disabilities) on site after receiving a share of a £150K grant awarded to Dudley Council, thanks to the local authority’s successful application to the Changing Places Toilet Programme fund. It would be built adjacent to the current toilet block near the exit of the lorikeet walkthrough.
The article in April also stated that work would be starting in the autumn, however, autumn came and went, and nothing seemed to be happening. The summer 2022 edition of the zoo’s magazine then stated that the zoo hoped to have the facility up and running before the start of the 2023 season.
The interactive map on the official Changing Places website shows no facility located within the zoo at the time of posting.
According to online planning documents, it also hoped for another Changing Places facility to be installed inside the Discovery Centre once it is renovated and transformed back into the Moat Café. If a Changing Places facility is constructed near the lorikeets and another one in what is currently the Discovery Centre, it would mean there would be one at both the highest and lowest points of the zoo; extremely important for people who rely on these facilities to be able to enjoy their day out.
Visitor numbers
- Visitor numbers for the years 2020 and 2021 have now been added to the graph.
- In 2020, the year most affected by the pandemic, visitor numbers dropped 37% from the previous year.
- In 2021, the zoo was only open for 267 days out of a possible 364 (the zoo is closed Christmas day), which equates to 73% of normal. This includes being closed during the busy Easter period. However, incredibly the zoo still attracted more visitors in 2021 than they did 9 years earlier in 2012.
- In 2022, over January the zoo welcomed 12,673 visitors on site: their best January numbers for 40 years. Over the 6 weeks school summer holidays in 2022, the zoo welcomed around 75,000 people on site.
Tectons
At the start of the year, the zoo said that in 2022 they would be continuing with developing plans to restore four of the site’s listed Tecton structures: the former Tropical Birdhouse, the Queen Mary Restaurant, the Discovery Centre, and the former Elephant House.
In the summer, renovation plans for these buildings were seen online…
• The former Tropical Birdhouse. The intention is to restore the unused Tropical Bird House Tecton to its former condition. They also plan to reveal the bird cages, reinstate the central aviary, repair the balcony and planters, and reinstate the windows and doors as per the original design. The idea is to provide a flexible space to facilitate multiple uses that will allow the zoo to easily convert the space in the future. It will most likely be used as an educational facility in the immediate future once restoration is complete.
It looks like the balcony will not be open to the public due to its location overhanging the lion enclosure. However, the plans do say that at the time the zoo plans to change the animals within the enclosure to allow the safe use of the gallery again.
• The Queen Mary Restaurant.
The whole structure will be restored, repaired, and any unoriginal unnecessary features will be removed. Its function as a restaurant will be extended to include an outside dining area. The interior layout will stay pretty much the same.
• The Discovery Centre. Once repaired and restored, the zoo plans for the Discovery Centre to undergo a massive transformation to turn it back into the Moat Café. Plans for it include new visitor toilets (including a Changing Places facility) as well as a small exhibit of some kind at either end of the seating area.
Annoyingly and rather typically, the backwards-thinking Twentieth Century Society questioned the zoo’s plan of replacing the current non-original glazing with new ‘frameless’ glazing – they’d prefer the new Moat Café to be open-air as it was originally. Personally, I thought the main reason for the open-air café design not working and being abandoned in the first place was because that this is a hill in the UK and most of the year the wind and rain would simply blow through and leave people with a soggy croissant. Happily, however, the Twentieth Century Society then say that if the glazing is absolutely necessary (which, as has already been learnt, it absolutely is in order for it to function as a café), then they encourage the zoo to install the transparent glazing much further back behind the columns – meaning there’d be much less space inside, and less chairs and tables, but at least we’d be able to see the lovely columns from the outside! I understand the Society’s mission is to protect the heritage of these buildings, but there seems to be very little leeway or common sense there sometimes.
• The former Elephant House.
Once it has been properly renovated the zoo hopes to convert the former Elephant House Tecton to house macaques, with the corresponding outdoor area being the existing hillside paddock to the left of the chairlift - accessed via new overhead tunnels.
In November, the zoo revealed that the outside of the former Elephant House Tecton had been given a thorough clean and a fresh coat of paint. Presumably it still needs to be properly restored, but regardless, it looks so much better as it was one of the most decrepit looking of the unrestored Tectons. A gargantuan improvement.
With these plans to restore and make good use of the Tecton structures, the zoo has developed a clear vision and identity for itself as it aims to embrace and take charge of its historical buildings rather than be dragged down by them.
In summary
All in all, 2022 was a year of terrible loss, new arrivals, delightful births, unexpected twists, and enormous progress.
Dudley Zoo had held the unenviable title of having the worst orangutan outdoor facilities in the UK since circa 1987, when even smaller ape accommodation at Chessington was demolished. The need for a new orang enclosure had felt more and more pressing each year since and particularly so over the past 20.
The extremely poor 1960s orangutan enclosures were a dark cloud over the zoo that had hung around for far too long and had become synonymous with the name Dudley Zoo, severely dragging down its image no matter how much the rest of the site improved. Therefore, the orangutan project had become possibly the most urgent and important enclosure improvement in the zoo’s history, so getting it done and done right was crucial.
It’s easy to underestimate the challenges of building a large new orangutan outdoor enclosure and Dudley had to overcome several hurdles before construction of theirs could even begin.
First, they had to gather enough funds. The zoo has said this had always been their biggest roadblock for building the new enclosure rather than any lack of desire or ambition on their part. Dudley Zoo isn’t awash with spare cash and, after a great deal of hard work, only started reaching around 300,000 visitors per year in 2016. They had to rely on the public to help them fundraise, which would be slow and take several years. During their 80th anniversary the zoo kicked off a public appeal with a fundraising Onesie Walk. The zoo then set up a JustGiving page where the public could donate online or via text message and would allocate all income from Zookeeper for a Day, Little Zookeeper, and Animal Feed experiences to the project. The zoo said they would also seek corporate and private sponsorship, as well as grant funding (personally I don’t know whether they achieved this).
Next, they had to acquire planning permission. Easy and inexpensive enough for most zoos, but Dudley Zoo sits on an archeologically and geologically significant conservation area that also contains 12 Grade II listed buildings, a Grade I listed castle, and is covered under Tree Preservation Orders and two Scheduled Monument Orders. Not to mention it also sits on a steep hill that is riddled with large caverns.
Planning permission was finally granted for the enclosure in mid-March 2020. Hooray! Work could now begin. Except it couldn’t because March 2020 was right when the pandemic took hold in the UK. Lockdown and social distancing followed, zoos were forced to close and rely on their cash reserves to survive, and everything stopped. After all the work the zoo had put in this was incredibly cruel. Construction work ended up being delayed by a whole year.
The pandemic forced the zoo to postpone all the upcoming major developments they’d had lined up. However, they were always determined to bring the orangutan enclosure plans to fruition so, once there was light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, the zoo focused on completing the orangutan project first.
Fast-forward to May 2022, when the new enclosure finally opened, and not only did things improve significantly for the orangs, who have become a centrepiece for the zoo, but they have also consequently improved for the zoo as a whole.
I don’t think you’d notice it if you hadn’t known the zoo for a long time, but it feels as though the zoo has had a personality change. Or maybe it’s what Generation Z call a “glow up”. Of course, this by-product was expected, but I gather that the size of the impact has taken many regulars by surprise. Dudley suddenly comes across as a zoo with confidence, no longer weighed down by a nagging issue. When the new orangutan enclosure finally opened back in May, it was as though the zoo threw a huge weight off its shoulders and took a big, deep breath.
The new enclosure is of course the biggest instigator of this change in the zoo’s image, but in addition to the orangutan enclosure, 2022 also saw improvements to many of the smaller exhibits around the zoo. Even though these smaller exhibits, such as the snowy owl aviary, are not Dudley’s biggest attractions to the general public, it’s still extremely gratifying to see the zoo continuing their strategy of quietly going around the site giving every exhibit, large or small, the once over to extend or improve it as much as possible, which they’ve been doing for a number of years now.
However, until the orangutan project was completed these other improvements have not been able to have nearly as much impact on how the zoo is perceived as they might otherwise have done. In metaphorical terms, the old orangutan outdoor areas were the zoo’s glass ceiling which no amount of improvement to the rest of the site could break through. Upon the orang project’s completion, the zoo punched through that ceiling and all those smaller improvements completed in 2022, as well as other improvements, large and small, carried out in the years prior, burst out too; finally able to have their full effect.
Despite not completing everything they planned to do in 2022 within the year, the zoo still accomplished a colossal amount in 12 months and took an enormous step forward. In terms of improvements, 2022 was surely the zoo’s busiest, best, and most pivotal year of its last 50. The zoo is improving year on year and the amalgamation of a succession of largely positive and productive years over the past decade has resulted in the zoo being without doubt the best it has ever been.
That being said, while our wishlists for Dudley seem to shrink year on year, there’s a fair amount at the zoo that still needs to be improved. This mostly includes improving visitor facilities, as well as improving the size of some of the animal housing and outdoor paddocks, however the zoo is evidently well aware as a lot of this is already in the pipeline for the next few years. Reassuringly, it appears that Dudley isn’t resting on its laurels and is proactively sustaining its positive momentum, allowing no part of the site to be left neglected or stagnate while the big projects take centre stage – doing both is key for a zoo to really improve.
The zoo is levelling up all on its own and on that momentous day when the access doors to the new orangutan enclosure were opened, the first orangutan reached the end of the access tunnel, peered out, and passed over the threshold, it was truly one small step for an orang, one giant leap for Dudley Zoo.
Things to look out for in 2023
• Will a female Southern cassowary join the zoo to partner the zoo’s resident male?
• Will the male and female snow leopards be properly introduced to each other?
• Any mention of when work on the tiger project may start, including any more details about the plans.
• Completion of the additional giraffe paddock as well as alterations to the house and viewing areas.
• The giraffes moving into the new additional paddock.
• The arrival of a female snowy owl to partner the zoo’s resident male.
• Will the original large aviary opposite the sloth enclosure be demolished to make way for a small new picnic area?
• Completion of renovations to the Parma wallaby enclosure.
• Will there be tiger cubs this year?
• Completion of the new metro station outside the zoo.
• Will there be Arctic fox pups?
• Will there be any other improvements to visitor facilities?
• Will there be any sea lion births this year?
• The arrival of more Humboldt penguins to rebuild the colony.
• Any changes to the penguin enclosure.
• Will we see work commencing on the renovation of the Queen Mary Restaurant, former Tropical Birdhouse, former Moat Café (aka old Discovery Centre), and former Elephant House Tectons?
• Any more details regarding the zoo’s plan to create new housing for their lar gibbons and for them to have access to the new orangutan outdoor area.
• The installation of new electric charging points in the car park near to the entrance.
• Construction of a Changing Places facility adjacent to the current toilet block near the exit of the lorikeet walkthrough.
Useful/interesting links
• A wishlist/ideas for the future thread can be found here.
• To learn more about the history of the Tecton structures at Dudley Zoo, as well as the work that went into restoring some of them, a superb talk hosted by The Twentieth Century Society can be found here.
• A thread about the history of some of the iconic animals at the zoo can be found here.
P.S. I have decided that I will not be doing the end-of-year summary for the year 2023. Therefore, if anyone is interested in writing it, could you please send me a private message.
keeper told me when i asked that they couldnt do the tiger improvments until the lions had passed away as they needed to move the tigers because of the amount of work they want to do the tigers couldnt stay there she said at least 5 years
A nice winter vlog around the zoo that was uploaded to YouTube a few days ago. It features glimpses of a lot of the recent improvements, notably the aviaries by the Barbary sheep, the climbing structures in the binturong enclosure (which I wasn't previously aware of), and the ongoing work to the giraffe and Parma wallaby enclosures;
visited yesterday 25/03/23 wasn't to impressed but won't go into that'
a few questions what as happened to the Little Egrets, Demoiselle cranes from the mixed aviary now empty?
Are the Parma Wallabies returning?
What will be in Bear Ravine now the Bears are not coming?
Will they get a new Giraffe when the exhibit is complete?
Will they get more Humboldt Penguins or are they getting a different species of Penguin?
Will they be getting more wildfowl as the wildfowl pool looked a bit empty today?
Wildfowl wise maybe like other places (CWP and Whipsnade for example) Dudley has taken birds off the open / uncovered lakes because of avian flu restrictions / precautions.
The Parma wallaby enclosure was being refurbished iirc - was the work looking near completion?
Parma exhibit had a wooden frame next to a completed building and little else.
Wildfowl wise very little signage around the collection for any species.
Many species have gone since my last visit.
As far as I am aware, it is still the intention to bring back brown bears. I asked one of the keepers about it last October - brown bears are still in the plan but there is no timescale at the moment.
visited the zoo saturday i dont know if it has been mentioned but sadly 2 of the camels have died at the start of the year the male one( charles i think his name is) and one of the older females so now theres 1 older female and the 3 youngsters.I also noticed the flamingoes are still closed off it seems like there putting new netting fencing in around the enclosure, the wallaby enclosure looked finished and looked great
visited the zoo saturday i dont know if it has been mentioned but sadly 2 of the camels have died at the start of the year the male one( charles i think his name is) and one of the older females so now theres 1 older female and the 3 youngsters.I also noticed the flamingoes are still closed off it seems like there putting new netting fencing in around the enclosure, the wallaby enclosure looked finished and looked great
