And if you were a child of the 1970s growing up in the Black Country, the chances are you would have made a fair few visits to Dudley Zoo as well.
For many, these were the halcyon days of the Black Country attraction, when vast crowds would queue at the turnstiles to see the vast range of animals, including elephants, polar bears and camels, as well as the lions and tigers.
Cuddles the killer whale was a firm favourite with the youngsters who, perhaps with hindsight unhelpfully, throw food for him to catch in his mouth. As our picture below shows, he also had something of a destructive side to his personality, with a habit of pulling up the lining of his pool and passing it to his keepers as a gift. It's just as well he was so loveable, otherwise the damage might have been quite tedious.
Cuddles the killer whale indulges in a little tug-o-war with Dudley Zoo trainer Sue Shields, using a chunk of plastic from the bottom of his pool. Cuddles had taken to ripping off bits of plastic and bringing them up to Sue, and now the pool was leaking as a result. Officials were facing the prospect of replacing the pool lining.
The Express & Star brought another favourite animal to the attraction when it paid for an orphaned baby elephant to be brought from Africa to make a new home in the Black Country in 1979. We held a competition to name the new arrival, and readers eventually opted for Estar, reflecting the newspaper's name. She soon found herself being taken under the wing of Tanya, one of the zoo's more mature elephants.
This 300lb toddler was getting a feed from keeper Tim Baxter after arriving from Bristol. The baby African elephant was bought by the Express & Star in July, 1979, and the Express & Star held a competition to choose a name.Morning milk time for Estar, Dudley Zoo's baby elephant, as she meets young Express & Star readers who helped choose her name. Pictured with Estar are the five winners of our name the elephant contest, Claire and Michael Thornton, of Muirfield Crescent, Tividale; Margaret Levans, of Laurel Road, Dudley; Timothy Evans, of Graham Road, Wordsley; and Lesley Darose, of Daywell Rise, Rugeley; with runner-up Karen Reece of Pedmore Road, Woodside, Dudley. The prize was a day out today at both Dudley and Bristol zoos. Estar, who was bought for Dudley zoo by the Express & Star, is an orphan from South Africa.What did this family see in the water feature that kept them so captivated?The penguins were always a popular attraction
Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but the summers always seemed longer and hotter in the 1970s, and Express & Star photographers Graham Gough and Frank Rogers would often turn up in the middle of a heatwave to see the efforts being made to keep the animals cool. Tim the Tapir loved his keeper's hosepipe, judging from this picture.
Dudley Zoo curator Chris Round keeping Tim the Tapir Cool in the summer of 1978Marzipan the Camel pictured in 1979.The zoo's distinctive bear ravine, pictured in 1970.Pupils from the Robert Street school in Lower Gornal were getting to know Tanya the elephant in August 1978Children enjoying their picnic in the castle grounds during a school trip in 1974One of two rare elephant seals which arrived at Dudley Zoo.from the Antarctic in February, 1972. They were brought to the zoo from the Falkland Islands by head keeper Chris Round and keepers Graham Chilton and Alan Margerrison.
