Dudley Zoo, West Midlands
Dudley Zoo, West Midlands, UK The zoo is still open, but no longer keeps dolphins or killer whales. They also had elephant seals.
Cuddles the killer whale was the start attraction, but he suffered from servere stomach ulcers and often the pool was turned red with blood. He was captured in 1968, went to Flamingoland park (North Yorkshire) where he had lived with two bottlenose dolphins. He became agressive and had severe bouts of intestinal bleeding. In the early 70s (1971/1972)cuddles was moved to a hurridly adapted dolphin pool at Dudley Zoo. (just over 15m long, 6m wide and 3.5m deep on the left side of the castle bridge.) The original plan was to build new dolphin and whale pools at Dudley and then move Cuddles to Marinland Antibes in France, but Cuddles broke a rib in 1974, got an infection and died a few days later. His pool wasn't very big, but he still managed to impress visitors with his tricks at show time during the short time he was at Dudley. Sea lions now llive in the pool where Cuddles was kept, but the pool has been modified since then.
A scan from Dudley Zoo's 1972 Guide Book:
Cuddles the killer whale was the start attraction, but he suffered from servere stomach ulcers and often the pool was turned red with blood. He was captured in 1968, went to Flamingoland park (North Yorkshire) where he had lived with two bottlenose dolphins. He became agressive and had severe bouts of intestinal bleeding. In the early 70s (1971/1972)cuddles was moved to a hurridly adapted dolphin pool at Dudley Zoo. (just over 15m long, 6m wide and 3.5m deep on the left side of the castle bridge.) The original plan was to build new dolphin and whale pools at Dudley and then move Cuddles to Marinland Antibes in France, but Cuddles broke a rib in 1974, got an infection and died a few days later. His pool wasn't very big, but he still managed to impress visitors with his tricks at show time during the short time he was at Dudley. Sea lions now llive in the pool where Cuddles was kept, but the pool has been modified since then.
A scan from Dudley Zoo's 1972 Guide Book:
