Dudley Zoological Gardens Dudley Zoo News 2023

A 4-year-old female pygmy marmoset, called Chewie, has arrived at Dudley from Banham Zoo.

She has been paired with Dudley's resident 5-year-old male, called Kingston, who was previously part of Dudley's bachelor group.

The zoo currently only has the two pygmy marmosets after the remaining males from their last breeding group were relocated to another UK collection. It is hoped that Chewie and Kingston will go on to form a new breeding group.

Hello Chewie! – Dudley Zoo and Castle
 
Benosaurus said:
A 4-year-old female pygmy marmoset, called Chewie, has arrived at Dudley from Banham Zoo.

She has been paired with Dudley's resident 5-year-old male, called Kingston, who was previously part of Dudley's bachelor group.

The zoo currently only has the two pygmy marmosets after the remaining males from their last breeding group were relocated to another UK collection. It is hoped that Chewie and Kingston will go on to form a new breeding group.

Hello Chewie! – Dudley Zoo and Castle
Click to expand...

I saw them yesterday, they were getting along just fine :D
 
So does that leave 1 otter now? Last few weeks there have been just the 2. Assuming buddy was one of those…

Haven’t seen any evidence of snow leopard cubs. I thought they were kept separately anyway.

Giraffe enclosure close to being complete I’d say… along with the new decking bit where the lions are.
 
orangeone said:
So does that leave 1 otter now? Last few weeks there have been just the 2. Assuming buddy was one of those…

Haven’t seen any evidence of snow leopard cubs. I thought they were kept separately anyway.

Giraffe enclosure close to being complete I’d say… along with the new decking bit where the lions are.
Click to expand...

There's 2 Keyah and Minnie I think it is. Buddy passed towards end of last year
 
Spent a lovely day at Dudley - it was quite cool and breezy when I arrived but got progressively warmer and sunnier throughout the day. It was relatively quiet on the visitor front - not a school party in sight (probably because they've only just gone back after the Easter break). The reptile house is closed all this week for essential maintenance.

Noticed a new large bug hotel on the left as you go up the hill, set back from the main path. Good to see both Arctic foxes - one was very active early on and then both were out and about at lunchtime. Great to see both Sumatran tigers together and all 3 Carpathian lynx in the outdoor enclosure. Work is still underway on the red panda enclosure and on the extension to the giraffe house.

Both binturongs were awake and outdoors although the palm civet was a no show. I liked the new wallaby enclosure and the aviaries by the otters look much larger than before. I'm not sure if they've done something to the roof of the sloth indoor enclosure as it looks much brighter in there than on previous visits - the sloths were (predictably) fast asleep throughout my visit.

I was disappointed not to see the two youngest orangs - they were out of sight with Jazz, their mother, every time I passed the enclosure. There was a lot of activity at the small primate houses - the yellow breasted capuchins were racing round their enclosure as were the Emperor tamarins.

The peacocks and peahens have been confined indoors due to avian flu but are due to be let out soon.

Really enjoyed my day.
 
Angel said:
No - I'd got a red jacket on.
Click to expand...

Can't remember any red jackets. Dudley's unique topography definitley lends itself to never seeing or being completely unaware of the majority of other visitors in the zoo with you.


Anyway, my visit report for 18th April...

Arrival time: ~10:30
Weather: Warm sunshine and strong cool/cold breeze.

There were geladas in the hillside paddocks to the right and left of the chairlift as well as in the paddock to the left of the spider monkeys, so it seems the two bachelor groups haven't been merged yet. The grass in the paddock to the right of the chairlift looked rather bare. I'd like to see the geladas have some much larger, more modern housing within the next few years - potentially on the site of the fairground.

Upon seeing the new netting over the flamingo exhibit for the first time, I was impressed with how robustly the zoo had gone about it; going to the trouble of installing multiple ~3m high steel poles all around the enclosure then fixing the netting to them instead of simply fixing the netting to the existing fence. It's a pity that the old weeping willow tree, which I think was over 50 years old as I've seen pictures of it in there from the 1970s, had to be chopped down, although I suppose it does give the flamingos a bit more space.

I saw one snowy owl in the rejuvenated aviary, so it looks like the male is still awaiting the arrival of a female.

I really wish they'd demolish the hawk-owl aviary. That ramshackle old thing is an embarrassment, particularly after the completion of all the large new aviaries further up the hill as well as the recent refurbishment of the snowy owl aviary.

I approached the wolverine enclosure to see Helga having just woken up from sleeping in that wooden basket full of straw that hangs from the left side of the climbing structure. As Helga was having a stretch, her keeper was descending the ladder, behind the armadillo enclosure on the right, into the off-show areas. Helga climbed down from where she had been sleeping then bounded across the floor of the enclosure to the right and peered into the open door of her den. I then heared the voice of the keeper talking to Helga, who then entered the den and quickly returned outside with a small piece of meat, which she enjoyed crunching on. On my secnd visit to the enclosure later in the day, Helga was fast asleep on the highest of the old concrete platforms at the back of the enclosure.

I only saw one Arctic fox, who was extremely active. I think it may have been the new female.

The snow leopards were being kept separate from one another. However, they were both sleeping as close as possible to each other on one of the high platforms right up against the mesh.

Both tigers were out sunbathing on the platforms of their climbing structure. I'd love for that enclosure to eventually be extended to encompass the bush dog and lynx enclosures, as well as the visitor space between them that leads up to the tiger ground-level viewing area.

The new wooden walkways in the red panda enclosure appear to extend much further up the hillside than the old ones did. New dens/nestboxes have also been installed, as well as what looks like will be a new on-show indoor area on the right-hand side (which I'd be surprised if it gets used).

There were lots of people hard at work on the new additional giraffe paddock. The outdoor area looked pretty much complete and most of the work was going on in and around the house. Difficult to say from where I was standing, but I'm not sure the new paddock will be as big as the original one. For the new paddock to be as big as the original paddock it would have to be roughly in line with the anteater house, however I'm not certain that they've been able to extend it that far (perhaps someone could check next time they visit).

All 3 binturongs were active. The youngster looks almost as big as the adults now. No sign of the Asian palm civet, which I've still never seen!!!

Really impressed with the upgrade to the parma wallaby exhibit. Extended to the front and to the left, and with new housing, it looks so much nicer and smarter than the old one. It wasn't an exhibit that appeared in desperate need of attention, but the zoo decided to upgrade it anyway - bravo! There's also a new on-show indoor area on the right-hand side.

I noticed new housing in the back, right-hand corner of the tapir paddock. Presumably this is used by the mara.

It was great to see the Sumatran laughingthrush in the leftmost of the new aviaries by the cassowary. Such a characterful species. One of them suddenly appeared in the doorway of the off-show area, flew down to hide in a dense bush near the front of the aviary, then proceeded to make all sorts of wacky noises at us.

I saw a Victoria crowned pigeon in the aviary to the right of the laughingthrush. Presumably this is the offspring of the pair that can be found in the lorikeet walkthrough.

While visiting, I thought how splendid the array of bird species just in the section of the zoo between the wolverine and the otters were: kookaburra, Himalayan monal, Reeve's pheasant, Elliot's pheasant, Palawan peacock pheasant, Vietnamese pheasant, Satyr tragopan, turacos, Southern cassowary, and various teals.

The only bird species around the zoo that I didn't see were the lilac-breasted roller, yellow-shouldered amazons, Bali mynas, sun conures, little egrets and Demoiselle cranes. However, this is understandable given the recent work on the aviaries and the subsequent shuffling around of different species.

There were signs on both the entrance to the lemur walkthrough and the lorikeet walkthrough asking visitors to wear face coverings. We did so, but upon entering both walkthroughs we saw that we were the only ones wearing them, so I'm not certain what the up-to-date policy is.

It's hard to describe, but a lot of work has been done to smarten up the old picnic/play area in-between the Birdhouse Tecton and the lemur walkthrough. It has been landscaped, re-turfed, and there's new fencing and a new path cutting through it that leads to the 'lion jeep' viewing area (which has also had new decking installed around it).

Benji (lone adult male Bornean orangutan) had access to the new outdoor area. He was sitting on the grass in the shade near the large old tree stump. Someone (who later told me is a frequent, long-time visitor to the zoo and knows Benji well) then called his name from the path on the opposite side of the enclosure. Benji turned around, balanced his trusty red bread crate on his head, walked out the enclosure along one of the access tunnels and into his old outdoor area, before finally making his way inside.

As I hadn't managed to see the baby orangs at all on my previous visit, I'd hoped the family group of orangs would be out in the new enclosure. However, having just seen Benji I now knew this wasn't the case. I then went down the new steps towards their part of the old outdoor areas and only saw Djimat and Sprout outside. A bit disappointed, I made my way around to the indoor viewing area where I could just about see the dark silhouette of Jazz and one fidgety baby high up, right at the back of the indoor area. To my surprise and subsequent delight, Jazz then turned around and brought both babies right up to the viewing window where we stood and watched them in front of us for a good 10-15 mins. We felt incredibly lucky. Even though they aren't even a year old yet, I was amazed at how small the youngsters still are.

On our second visit to the indoor viewing area a few hours later, Jazz was now sat high up on the indoor climbing structure while she watched both babies play/climb/squabble on the attached cargo netting. The ever calm Jazz is definitely having no trouble raising two infants at a time. As soon as she decided playtime was over, she gave the signal and both youngsters immediately came rushing back to her whereupon she scooped them up and disappeared into the off-show areas.

I went to the orangutan talk at 12:30 for the first time in years. It was well attended by interested visitors and very well presented. Full of interesting information about the species and the individual orangs they have at the zoo. One small thing I wasn't sure about was when the presenter said that Djimat and Benji came to Dudley from The Netherlands and Germany respectively, since I'm fairly certain these were the places they were born and not the countries that they came to Dudley from.

The presenter at the orangutan talk also said that Benji and the family group are swapped access to the new outdoor enclosure each day. This information might be useful to anyone on here planning to visit that hopes to see certain orangs in particular outdoor enclosures.

The lar gibbons were a joy to watch as always. A combination of them lounging around on the lush grass right in front of you, to then performing gasp-inducing, death-defying acrobatics through the mature trees in front of the castle wall backdrop.

Sorry to say that the Castle Creatures exhibit that is entered via the castle courtyard was rubbish. In the main part all I saw were 3 black rats (the rest of the animal exhibits in this section appeared empty and likely were) then a few fleeting murky glimpses of the bats at the end. I know the zoo has their hands full at the moment with lots of other projects, but I think Castle Creatures needs a serious re-think down the line. Perhaps demolish the animal section, put the educational material in the Birdhouse Tecton, maybe keep the bats, then turn the rest of the space into a nocturnal house similar to the ones at BWCP.

The new-ish exhibit by the capuchins contained coppery titi monkeys. The reliably active capuchins were great fun to watch.

I saw both pygmy marmosets in the usual enclosure. Both seemed very wary of a large wasp that had found its way into their indoor area.

The female red panda was hiding on top of the nest box at the far end of the temporary outdoor area.

It seems apparent that the last of the white-throated monitor lizards has passed away. Their enclosure within the lorikeet walkthrough now contains terrapins and is signed as such. They were impressive lizards in their prime. I believe they were two males called Shango and Monty; It’s dinner day! – Dudley Zoo and Castle. I think I vaguely remember reading a long time ago that they may have originally been seized at an airport, but that statement definietly needs confirming.

The leaf cutter ants and vampire crabs in the chimpanzee indoor viewing area are no longer there (and thankfully the plastic tubes formerly used by the ants have been cleaned out). The naked mole rats are still in this area and were very active.

Most of the chimps were fairly active in the outdoor area.

There were lots of construction materials piled up at the far end of the path that runs alongside the chimp outdoor area. None of it is accessable to the public, but it was viewable to the public over the low gate and looked a bit of a mess, so it needs hiding IMO.

I saw a sign for a Changing Places facility on a door on the right-hand side of the toilets by the exit of the lorikeet walkthrough. No idea if it was open.

Went into the farm barn which was good. More stick insect species in there than you can...erm...shake a stick at.


Overall, another really enjoyable visit. The nice thing about Dudley is that there's always something new to see as it continuously improves.


Notable bonus (i.e. wild) animals: A fox running along the stand-off area at the top of the gelada banks, plus a very tame robin that seemed to follow us around the zoo.
 
Last edited:
Benosaurus said:
I only saw one Arctic fox, who was extremely active. I think it may have been the new female.

There were signs on both the entrance to the lemur walkthrough and the lorikeet walkthrough asking visitors to wear face coverings. We did so, but upon entering both walkthroughs we saw that we were the only ones wearing them, so I'm not certain what the up-to-date policy is.
Click to expand...

On my first visit to the triple tectons, there was one Arctic fox who was very active - I am fairly sure it was the new female as she is much lighter in colour than the male. Later in the afternoon, the male was also outdoors although not as active and only stayed out for short visits.

I asked about masks at the lemur walkthrough as I didn't have one with me. They said that masks were no longer required (the day we visited was the first day that masks weren't required so I suspect they just hadn't got round to taking the signs down).
 
Benosaurus said:
One small thing I wasn't sure about was when the presenter said that Djimat and Benji came to Dudley from The Netherlands and Germany respectively, since I'm fairly certain these were the places they were born and not the countries that they came to Dudley from.
Click to expand...
Benji was born at Duisburg in Germany, but he came to Dudley from Dublin. I saw him the day after he arrived at Dudley, he was very nervous, not moving away from the one tyre he was sitting on. There was diarrhea all over the floor too. A long time ago now..

Djimat did come direct from Europe but can't remember where.
 
Benosaurus said:
Can't remember any red jackets. Dudley's unique topography definitley lends itself to never seeing or being completely unaware of the majority of other visitors in the zoo with you.


Anyway, my visit report for 18th April...

Arrival time: ~10:30
Weather: Warm sunshine and strong cool/cold breeze.

There were geladas in the hillside paddocks to the right and left of the chairlift as well as in the paddock to the left of the spider monkeys, so it seems the two bachelor groups haven't been merged yet. The grass in the paddock to the right of the chairlift looked rather bare. I'd like to see the geladas have some much larger, more modern housing within the next few years - potentially on the site of the fairground.

Upon seeing the new netting over the flamingo exhibit for the first time, I was impressed with how robustly the zoo had gone about it; going to the trouble of installing multiple ~3m high steel poles all around the enclosure then fixing the netting to them instead of simply fixing the netting to the existing fence. It's a pity that the old weeping willow tree, which I think was over 50 years old as I've seen pictures of it in there from the 1970s, had to be chopped down, although I suppose it does give the flamingos a bit more space.

I saw one snowy owl in the rejuvenated aviary, so it looks like the male is still awaiting the arrival of a female.

I really wish they'd demolish the hawk-owl aviary. That ramshackle old thing is an embarrassment, particularly after the completion of all the large new aviaries further up the hill as well as the recent refurbishment of the snowy owl aviary.

I approached the wolverine enclosure to see Helga having just woken up from sleeping in that wooden basket full of straw that hangs from the left side of the climbing structure. As Helga was having a stretch, her keeper was descending the ladder, behind the armadillo enclosure on the right, into the off-show areas. Helga climbed down from where she had been sleeping then bounded across the floor of the enclosure to the right and peered into the open door of her den. I then heared the voice of the keeper talking to Helga, who then entered the den and quickly returned outside with a small piece of meat, which she enjoyed crunching on. On my secnd visit to the enclosure later in the day, Helga was fast asleep on the highest of the old concrete platforms at the back of the enclosure.

I only saw one Arctic fox, who was extremely active. I think it may have been the new female.

The snow leopards were being kept separate from one another. However, they were both sleeping as close as possible to each other on one of the high platforms right up against the mesh.

Both tigers were out sunbathing on the platforms of their climbing structure. I'd love for that enclosure to eventually be extended to encompass the bush dog and lynx enclosures, as well as the visitor space between them that leads up to the tiger ground-level viewing area.

The new wooden walkways in the red panda enclosure appear to extend much further up the hillside than the old ones did. New dens/nestboxes have also been installed, as well as what looks like will be a new on-show indoor area on the right-hand side (which I'd be surprised if it gets used).

There were lots of people hard at work on the new additional giraffe paddock. The outdoor area looked pretty much complete and most of the work was going on in and around the house. Difficult to say from where I was standing, but I'm not sure the new paddock will be as big as the original one. For the new paddock to be as big as the original paddock it would have to be roughly in line with the anteater house, however I'm not certain that they've been able to extend it that far (perhaps someone could check next time they visit).

All 3 binturongs were active. The youngster looks almost as big as the adults now. No sign of the Asian palm civet, which I've still never seen!!!

Really impressed with the upgrade to the parma wallaby exhibit. Extended to the front and to the left, and with new housing, it looks so much nicer and smarter than the old one. It wasn't an exhibit that appeared in desperate need of attention, but the zoo decided to upgrade it anyway - bravo! There's also a new on-show indoor area on the right-hand side.

I noticed new housing in the back, right-hand corner of the tapir paddock. Presumably this is used by the mara.

It was great to see the Sumatran laughingthrush in the leftmost of the new aviaries by the cassowary. Such a characterful species. One of them suddenly appeared in the doorway of the off-show area, flew down to hide in a dense bush near the front of the aviary, then proceeded to make all sorts of wacky noises at us.

I saw a Victoria crowned pigeon in the aviary to the right of the laughingthrush. Presumably this is the offspring of the pair that can be found in the lorikeet walkthrough.

While visiting, I thought how splendid the array of bird species just in the section of the zoo between the wolverine and the otters were: kookaburra, Himalayan monal, Reeve's pheasant, Elliot's pheasant, Palawan peacock pheasant, Vietnamese pheasant, Satyr tragopan, turacos, Southern cassowary, and various teals.

The only bird species around the zoo that I didn't see were the lilac-breasted roller, yellow-shouldered amazons, Bali mynas, sun conures, little egrets and Demoiselle cranes. However, this is understandable given the recent work on the aviaries and the subsequent shuffling around of different species.

There were signs on both the entrance to the lemur walkthrough and the lorikeet walkthrough asking visitors to wear face coverings. We did so, but upon entering both walkthroughs we saw that we were the only ones wearing them, so I'm not certain what the up-to-date policy is.

It's hard to describe, but a lot of work has been done to smarten up the old picnic/play area in-between the Birdhouse Tecton and the lemur walkthrough. It has been landscaped, re-turfed, and there's new fencing and a new path cutting through it that leads to the 'lion jeep' viewing area (which has also had new decking installed around it).

Benji (lone adult male Bornean orangutan) had access to the new outdoor area. He was sitting on the grass in the shade near the large old tree stump. Someone (who later told me is a frequent, long-time visitor to the zoo and knows Benji well) then called his name from the path on the opposite side of the enclosure. Benji turned around, balanced his trusty red bread crate on his head, walked out the enclosure along one of the access tunnels and into his old outdoor area, before finally making his way inside.

As I hadn't managed to see the baby orangs at all on my previous visit, I'd hoped the family group of orangs would be out in the new enclosure. However, having just seen Benji I now knew this wasn't the case. I then went down the new steps towards their part of the old outdoor areas and only saw Djimat and Sprout outside. A bit disappointed, I made my way around to the indoor viewing area where I could just about see the dark silhouette of Jazz and one fidgety baby high up, right at the back of the indoor area. To my surprise and subsequent delight, Jazz then turned around and brought both babies right up to the viewing window where we stood and watched them in front of us for a good 10-15 mins. We felt incredibly lucky. Even though they aren't even a year old yet, I was amazed at how small the youngsters still are.

On our second visit to the indoor viewing area a few hours later, Jazz was now sat high up on the indoor climbing structure while she watched both babies play/climb/squabble on the attached cargo netting. The ever calm Jazz is definitely having no trouble raising two infants at a time. As soon as she decided playtime was over, she gave the signal and both youngsters immediately came rushing back to her whereupon she scooped them up and disappeared into the off-show areas.

I went to the orangutan talk at 12:30 for the first time in years. It was well attended by interested visitors and very well presented. Full of interesting information about the species and the individual orangs they have at the zoo. One small thing I wasn't sure about was when the presenter said that Djimat and Benji came to Dudley from The Netherlands and Germany respectively, since I'm fairly certain these were the places they were born and not the countries that they came to Dudley from.

The presenter at the orangutan talk also said that Benji and the family group are swapped access to the new outdoor enclosure each day. This information might be useful to anyone on here planning to visit that hopes to see certain orangs in particular outdoor enclosures.

The lar gibbons were a joy to watch as always. A combination of them lounging around on the lush grass right in front of you, to then performing gasp-inducing, death-defying acrobatics through the mature trees in front of the castle wall backdrop.

Sorry to say that the Castle Creatures exhibit that is entered via the castle courtyard was rubbish. In the main part all I saw were 3 black rats (the rest of the animal exhibits in this section appeared empty and likely were) then a few fleeting murky glimpses of the bats at the end. I know the zoo has their hands full at the moment with lots of other projects, but I think Castle Creatures needs a serious re-think down the line. Perhaps demolish the animal section, put the educational material in the Birdhouse Tecton, maybe keep the bats, then turn the rest of the space into a nocturnal house similar to the ones at BWCP.

The new-ish exhibit by the capuchins contained coppery titi monkeys. The reliably active capuchins were great fun to watch.

I saw both pygmy marmosets in the usual enclosure. Both seemed very wary of a large wasp that had found its way into their indoor area.

The female red panda was hiding on top of the nest box at the far end of the temporary outdoor area.

It seems apparent that the last of the white-throated monitor lizards has passed away. Their enclosure within the lorikeet walkthrough now contains terrapins and is signed as such. They were impressive lizards in their prime. I believe they were two males called Shango and Monty; It’s dinner day! – Dudley Zoo and Castle. I think I vaguely remember reading a long time ago that they may have originally been seized at an airport, but that statement definietly needs confirming.

The leaf cutter ants and vampire crabs in the chimpanzee indoor viewing area are no longer there (and thankfully the plastic tubes formerly used by the ants have been cleaned out). The naked mole rats are still in this area and were very active.

Most of the chimps were fairly active in the outdoor area.

There were lots of construction materials piled up at the far end of the path that runs alongside the chimp outdoor area. None of it is accessable to the public, but it was viewable to the public over the low gate and looked a bit of a mess, so it needs hiding IMO.

I saw a sign for a Changing Places facility on a door on the right-hand side of the toilets by the exit of the lorikeet walkthrough. No idea if it was open.

Went into the farm barn which was good. More stick insect species in there than you can...erm...shake a stick at.


Overall, another really enjoyable visit. The nice thing about Dudley is that there's always something new to see as it continuously improves.


Notable bonus (i.e. wild) animals: A fox running along the stand-off area at the top of the gelada banks, plus a very tame robin that seemed to follow us around the zoo.
Click to expand...

Nice report! Enjoy how much the zoo is working to improve. The female arctic fox is quite a bit lighter and she's still got the paint spray mark on her from when she arrived (assume they sprayed her in her old home to know which one to move) as it hasn't grown out yet. It's a bit fainter than it was but still there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top