Dudley Zoological Gardens Dudley Zoological Gardens in 2014

Unfortunately that bit of good news has now been followed by some rather bad news on the Dudley website:

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of DZG's male Patagonian sealion, Orry.

The 22-year-old was a great favourite with visitors as the many adoption plaques at his moat pools testify.

A true heavyweight, tipping the scales at 405kg (64st), he will be missed by all at DZG.

Orry had been receiving veterinary treatment for the past 10 days and staff are awaiting the results of his post mortem carried out today.
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I suspect this spells the final and conclusive end of the species being held in the UK - the only two males remaining in the UK are elderly individuals at Gweek, with female animals at Colchester and Dudley.
 
Very, very sad news.

He was an enormous part of the zoo; not only in size, but also in character and will be sorely missed by many.


For me this raises a few questions:
Did he ever breed?
What will happen to Dudley's lone female? (Possibly join Colchester?)
What will happen to the sea lion pools now?
 
Very sad news - he was a real character and I will miss him.

I'm not sure how old the remaining female is or the practicalities of introducing her to the individuals at either Gweek or Colchester but, personally, I would rather see that happen than have her live a solitary life at Dudley.

I'm not sure whether the moat area where the sealion pools are has any form of listing? I would like to see the pools remain but possibly used for another species. Not sure what, but seals/sealions/giant otters possibly?
 
Firstly, the refurbished buildings look great - the shop looks amazing - I really didn't know how it would end up but that's a great piece of work.

Very sad news from the sea lion pool. Very much a favourite of all Dudley regulars I know. Will wait to see what happens in future (not sure I'd be quite so sure they'll go out of them but we'll see). One thing that is the case:

Angel said:
I'm not sure whether the moat area where the sealion pools are has any form of listing? I would like to see the pools remain but possibly used for another species. Not sure what, but seals/sealions/giant otters possibly?
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The sea lion pools are Grade II listed Tectons, so will have to remain in a mostly unmodified form whatever happens in terms of occupants: 1076026 - The National Heritage List for England | English Heritage

If they are going to change species, I'd like to see seals, even if it were just Common Seals - no British zoo per se keeps any Phocidae currently - only aquaria and seal sanctuaries have them. Occasionally Welsh Mountain rescues some but there's no permanent display.
 
Maguari said:
If they are going to change species, I'd like to see seals, even if it were just Common Seals - no British zoo per se keeps any Phocidae currently - only aquaria and seal sanctuaries have them. Occasionally Welsh Mountain rescues some but there's no permanent display.
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Never happening in a million years considering the political realities and the likely cost, but I would love it were they to take the opportunity to go into Baikal Seal ;)
 
Very sad news, the loss of a great animal the beginning of the end of the species in the UK. Hopefully Cleo will go somewhere where she can live out her remaining years with others of her kind. If I remember rightly she's comparatively young and could be around for five years.

As for the pool, it was always a bit small for Patagonian sealions, let alone dolphins, orca and elephant seals.

I'm hopeful for fur seals or a true seal. It would also be great for giant otters.

But you have to consider the location as well as the facilities. It's right between the cafe and play area and the castle, so the animals can't be disturbed by noisy people, but can't be noisy themselves either.

As cool as they would be, I can imagine giant otters being pretty distracting.

Does it have enough land area for pygmy hippo? Maybe they could fill one of the pools with earth and bark chips, like they did with the old koi pond in Monkey Tails.

I seriously doubt it would happen as they already have a great Humboldt colony, but I'd love it if they kept King Penguins.
 
There is not enough land area for giant otter, never mind pygmy hippo!
 
I don't know, there is a decent bit of space between the concrete dens and the castle wall. The sealions never use it but it's easily accessible.
http://www.zoochat.com/198/sea-lion-pool-1-a-105160/
http://www.zoochat.com/198/gibbon-enclosure-sea-lion-pool-castle-37313/
https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6185/6063210826_51bd0dcb30_z.jpg

It's not huge, but it's not insignificant either. If you filled in the smaller pool you would have lots of space. That side is nice and shady too.

I'll be down at London Zoo tomorrow so I can get a better idea of what pygmy hippos need. Do bulls have to be kept separate from cows?
 
Sad news he will be missed by all regulars to the zoo.

RIP ORRY

On the subject of what will happen next I would love to see a young male replace Orry but this will never happen, on the Pygmy Hippo hope then there is the possibility of extending the ground at the back of the current pens to the castle wall and why not extend into the Wildfowl enclosure (which as a bird lover would upset me a little but then again the wildfowl display is not that ore inspiring).
My hope would be to have a roofed netting and have some sea bird/ducks added to the collection (I can dream) to the pool next to the gibbons and extend the other pool/ground right up to the Humboldt Penguins and have Pygmy Hippo's or Giant Otters in the enclosure/pool
 
TeaLovingDave said:
There is not enough land area for giant otter, never mind pygmy hippo!
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There is the waterfowl area between the sea lion pools and the Humboldt penguin pool they could extend into if they needed a lot of extra land.

However, I've a feeling that there won't be much change to this area for a few years while the drastic Tecton renovations are taking place and any other plans they have (like the Trilobite building).

I like the steady pace Dudley are taking with improving the zoo at the moment and I don't think they should take too much on at once - all in good time though :)
 
A look at London's facilities and common sense suggests that pygmy hippo might not be the best idea. They do spend an awful lot of time on land and where would you build heated houses for them?
And again you have to consider how close you are to the cafe, if they are anything like their larger relatives then it would get pretty unpleasant pretty fast.

What animals would be practical? King Penguins seem like they would be pretty easy to source from Europe, perhaps with crested penguins, who might enjoy the ramps and concrete platforms. But Dudley already have a very successful colony of penguins. New species would draw in a few zoo nerds but for the average punter a penguin is a penguin. Unless they arranged a parade, perhaps into the castle for a talk, or around it.

Another pinniped would probably best. Californian Sealions would probably be the easier to get, but they pretty large. South American Fur Seals seem like the best choice too me, reasonably available, about half the size of South American Sealions and from the same part of the world, so they still match with the Humboldt penguins.

I'd love to see harbour seals, or something more exotic like ringed seals or harp seals, but I imagine they will go with an eared seal.
 
Visited today, and the Zoo is looking really good, though it's clearly still a work in progress.

Bart and Inca were no-shows, but Nick was up and about, looking superb if a little flaky. Cleo seemed ok, but the larger pool closer to the orangutans was covered in algae.

I spent quite a bit of time at the Sealion Pool, and my pygmy hippo idea seems pretty silly now. It does look like it would be great for rockhopper or macaroni penguins, and I don't think king penguins would have trouble moving from one pool to another.

Work continues on the bear ravine and associated kiosk, both are looking much better now they are cleaned up. The finished gift shop looks really nice as well, they have a little tecton exhibition as well.

The was an egg in the rhea exhibit, just haphazardly dropped in the grass. It was removed when I came back about a hour later. Another rhea was in with the Little egrets/waldrapp ibis/hamerkop, I presume it is the hand-reared one. There was also at least one little egret chick.

The old cassowary exhibit looks pretty abandoned, I assume with the blue cranes gone they are focusing elsewhere for now. If they merged it with the babirusa enclosure they could have a quite large forest exhibit. They could keep anoa, sitatunga, duiker, okapi, red river hogs, warty pigs. Heck, it would be great if they tried again with babirusa or cassowary.

The camaroon dwarf sheep have stripped the area behind the restaurant. I wonder if the Barbary sheep could be moved to exhibits on the slopes near the geladas to graze now and then? Now the trees have been cleared the gelada exhibit is much easier to see.
 
I was wondering what has happened to Jill the Raven at the zoo as on Zooterliste previous they have Raven and non in current stock I also noticed that the following were missing from the current list have the following species moved on this year or have they been missed from the list.

If they have moved on anyone know where too please –

Vietnamese pheasant
Bali Mynah
White cheeked turaco
Temminck’s tragopan
Citron crested cockatoo
Common eider duck
Laysan duck
Reeve’s pheasant
Emperor goose
Common Raven
Asian azure winged magpie


I have dvd or photographs of the above species at the zoo in 2013 so any info would be gratefully received
 
adrian1963 said:
I was wondering what has happened to Jill the Raven at the zoo as on Zooterliste previous they have Raven and non in current stock I also noticed that the following were missing from the current list have the following species moved on this year or have they been missed from the list.

If they have moved on anyone know where too please –

Vietnamese pheasant
Bali Mynah
White cheeked turaco
Temminck’s tragopan
Citron crested cockatoo
Common eider duck
Laysan duck
Reeve’s pheasant
Emperor goose
Common Raven
Asian azure winged magpie


I have dvd or photographs of the above species at the zoo in 2013 so any info would be gratefully received
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I was there a couple of months ago and Jill was present and looking healthy. Cockatoo were in the parrot bit, as was my buddy the reeves pheasant (previously near Jill), the rest I can't say I remember either way.
 
Jill the raven is still there and was the subject of a news article on DZG's website this week All eyes on Jill | Dudley Zoological Gardens

I remember seeing the Reeves pheasant when I visited at the beginning of June this year but couldn't say about the others. I've definitely seen common eider duck in the waterfowl enclosure opposite the discovery centre but it could have been last year rather than this.
 
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