Dudley Zoological Gardens Dudley Zoological Gardens in 2017

Some recently uploaded footage of Dudley zoo circa 1976.

Found the clips of the polar bears to be quite grim. The enclosure was purpose built in 1937, fair enough, but why this was deemed acceptable, even in the 70s, and that polar bears stayed at the zoo for another 13 years is beyond me. Thank goodness zoos have come such a long long way since.
 
Yes the polar bear enclosure was not good for that date - but it was better than Bristol's, Chessington's or Whipsnade's. The supine orang shows that the unreconstructed Ape House was the pits and it was built long after 1937.
 
Benosaurus said:
Some recently uploaded footage of Dudley zoo circa 1976.

Found the clips of the polar bears to be quite grim. The enclosure was purpose built in 1937, fair enough, but why this was deemed acceptable, even in the 70s, and that polar bears stayed at the zoo for another 13 years is beyond me. Thank goodness zoos have come such a long long way since.
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I don't think enough is shown of the Polar Bear enclosure to show it was awful. Even in the wonderful new YWP enclosures they lounge around asleep & only seconds were shown with them pacing ! Yes in 2017 that enclosure is terrible, but even in the 80s it was only average at worst, possibly better than some in eastern Europe
 
pipaluk said:
I don't think enough is shown of the Polar Bear enclosure to show it was awful.
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What do you mean you don't think enough is shown of the enclosure in the video to show it was awful? It is awful. I've seen it probably 50 times in person. I know exactly what it looks like. It has always been awful, but it's only later in time (sadly often quite a long time) that we come to realise that and changes are made. This is the only point I was making.

pipaluk said:
Even in the wonderful new YWP enclosures they lounge around asleep & only seconds were shown with them pacing !
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So just because we only saw a few seconds of them pacing in the video it means that they only ever paced for those few seconds? Anyway, animals in bad enclosures can still demonstrate natural behaviour (e.g. lounging around). An enclosure can still be crap, natural behaviour or not.

pipaluk said:
Yes in 2017 that enclosure is terrible, but even in the 80s it was only average at worst, possibly better than some in eastern Europe
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I don't care about it in comparison to other enclosures. Just because it was better than some others of the time does not mean it was ever good. The average of crap is still crap. Of course I appreciate it may have been deemed good at the time, but in reality it was always bad.

Leaving it there :)
 
Benosaurus said:
What do you mean you don't think enough is shown of the enclosure in the video to show it was awful? It is awful. I've seen it probably 50 times in person. I know exactly what it looks like. It has always been awful, but it's only later in time (sadly often quite a long time) that we come to realise that and changes are made. This is the only point I was making.



So just because we only saw a few seconds of them pacing in the video it means that they only ever paced for those few seconds? Anyway, animals in bad enclosures can still demonstrate natural behaviour (e.g. lounging around). An enclosure can still be crap, natural behaviour or not.



I don't care about it in comparison to other enclosures. Just because it was better than some others of the time does not mean it was ever good. The average of crap is still crap. Of course I appreciate it may have been deemed good at the time, but in reality it was always bad.

Leaving it there :)
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I'll have to watch the clip again later, but I don't think it really showed the enclosure, which was the point I was making . I have seen it in person and don't disagree it's awful ( but in 1976, so were the majority of other enclosures) !!
As for the pacing, I didn't suggest anywhere that they only ever paced for a few seconds, but simply that the clip of that was very brief.
 
The Dudley clip is very interesting, and very typical of UK zoos of that time of course. So we should not be too harsh about those days. What some people might consider as "awful" now, was not thought of as "awful" back then, by most of us I am sure, and so it should be put into perspective. At that time there were no particularly "good" polar bear enclosures in the UK, though some were marginally better than others it is true. But again, it should all be put into perspective, remembering that we now know a great deal more about such things as stereotypical behaviour than we did back then. So, yes, we quite rightly expect so much more of our zoos these days, which is only natural because things have changed so much over the past 40 years or so.
 
The female giant anteater, Romy, has moved into the newer of the two giant anteater enclosures.
The two elderly Western Grey kangaroos have moved into Romy's former enclosure.
Romy's new home will now be extended into the kangaroos former enclosure (i.e. the other half of the old babirusa enclosure) where keepers will build a new pool and install termite mounds.
Romy's new home - Dudley Zoological Gardens
 
Work on the £90,000 revamp of the farmyard has begun.

Work will start with the barn. The old barn will be demolished to make room for one double the size. The extension will allow room for more "small and furry animals" as well as fish, invertebrates and amphibians (the ones that were displaced from the discovery centre perhaps?).
It will also include leaf cutter ants; a species returning to DZG after more than 20 years.
There'll also be a teaching area and a 'conservation corner'.

It is hoped the new bigger barn will be completed in time for Whitsun week.

Work on the rest of the farmyard will start later this year.

Farm revamp begins - Dudley Zoological Gardens
 
Had a very pleasant visit today. It was the first time I'd visited this year and I was quite surprised to see so many changes. There is building work going on to extend the lynx's enclosure into the old Geoffroy's cat encosure; between the anteater and kangaroos; at the side of the orang utan house and the farm barn has been flattened. I was impressed with the extended enclosure for the yellow breasted capuchins and with the viewing windows between the tapirs and the anteater. The Discovery Centre now appears to be purely an education centre and a place that parties can pre-book to eat their lunch in.

There has also been a lot of cutting back of greenery - most notably opposite the otter pool, which has allowed a lot more light to reach the triple aviaries. There also seemed to be a lot of new signage around, explaining the changes that are happening or planned - all in all, a general air of transformation.

I enjoyed seeing the new species that have arrived since my last visit - agouti, sailfin lizards, Mexican beaded lizard, cotton top tamarin and, of course, the giant anteater. She spent most of her time curled up in a ball but I was lucky enough to see her unwind and sniff the air before she curled up again. The reptile house is looking much better too - with most of the enclosures refurbished and good signage.

No sign of Inca, the red squirrels or the bush dogs (I don't think I ever saw them when Dudley held them previously, so no change there!)
 
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