Agree with zoefruitcake, Dudley Zoo does a good job housing and caring for the animals, but the…read morepleasure of viewing them might be tempered with the uneasy feeling that it's not really in the animals' interests.
Some of the big, intelligent creatures that should be used to huge territories, land based and sky-ward with complex sensory experience, might appear cramped.
The tiger was pacing. The orang-outangs have a smallish compound backed by a peeling brick wall (and a continuous electronic clicking from their electric fence, which was annoying me after 5 minutes - they live there forever).
The leopards are caged, (albeit in a tall metal space with platforms at seemingly impossible heights for them to lounge on). A new snow leopard is being acclimatised in a small adjacent room. This animal is absolutely stunning - beautiful mottled coat, fluffy feet, really handsome face and a tail as long as its own body. Again it might highlight the conflict between the personal pleasure of seeing it so closely contrasting with its confinement in a relatively cramped area.
Other animals seem well located. The lemurs have a wonderful, unfenced walk through park, 'Lemur Wood', where they can roam about and climb trees as they wish - they will come right up to you, completeley unafraid - beautiful creatures, with plenty of space, scope and fellow lemur pals to flourish.
In the 'MonkeyTails' house, you can meander through a mini jungle populated by a selection of smaller monkeys, foraging, running and jumping through the vegetation around you. A family of noisy Asian otters inhabits a separated compound within the house. They too are fascinating to watch, lively, alert and playful, snickering between themsleves in a continuous self-supporting banter, seemingly content.
The georgeous African hunting dogs have quite a large range to run around in and they too have a well knit pack, which seems self supporting and gives the impression of reasonable contentedness.
The meerkats display all the amazing cuteness seen on TV ; one or two standing guard, watching the open skies with relentless concentration, making little squeaky reassurances to the others left to forage and play. They are so close across the low walled compound, you feel you could almost touch them (obviously not).
The chimpanzies have a large out-door enclosure along with a big indoor house where they can climb to the rafters, out of each others way. Whether this is enough for creatures so intelligent and human-like is not clear - they wouldn't talk to me.
If it were down to me, I would reduce the range of animals and expand the enclosures more in keeping with their inhabitants' natures.
However, skipping past the underlying thoughts, Dudley Zoo is a great day out for all ages, a full day, healthy walking up and around the nicely hilly park.
Plenty of seats and picnic tables to rest and relax. Good cafe facilities for food and drinks if you didn't pack your own. There are spotlessly clean toilets available too (should be pretty good - if they can keep the chimps house clean, then the gents should be a doddle).
As a bonus, crowning the park is the magnificent Dudley Castle. Though included in the Dudley Zoo entrance fee, it almost seems right to review seperately (you might for instance, completely object to zoos but love ancient historical monuments - in this case, you could always keep your eyes shut until you reached the Castle grounds!). If interested, see seperate Dudley Castle review.
Getting there by train, arriving at Dudley Port station, is not ideal - approx 3 miles to the Zoo and up hill all the way. (And be very careful who you ask for directions. Take double extra care if whoever you're asking is getting on a bit as well - right and left is bound to be a bit confusing for them. You too could end up pedalling three and a half miles in completely the wrong direction onto the Black Country spine road before realising you were about to visit West Bromwich instead of Dudley Zoo!) Bus number 74 will take you to Castle Gate stop from the rail station. Plenty of trains from New Street, every half hour.
Cars do seem more easily accommodated, with large pay and display parking facilities on site.
Highly recommended for a great day out or at the very least to stimulate thoughts about the animals - never know, might be an inspirational experience.
