- 21/05/2025
Express & Star writer Mark Andrews chats to Dudley Zoo director Derek Grove, who is retiring after 45 years.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The old saying goes that you never work with children or animals. Well I'm here at Dudley Zoo
00:07and I'm about to speak to a man who has spent 45 years doing both. I'm with Derek Groves,
00:14the director of Dudley Zoo who is retiring after 45 years at the attraction. What's it been like?
00:22It's been a great place to work. I mean like any job there's challenges you know but it's a place that
00:35you grow to love. I mean we visited it as a child and to have the opportunity to work here,
00:40to work with all these wonderful animals has just been a fantastic opportunity and having the
00:46opportunity now to help design and build new enclosures for these animals. It really is a
00:53dream come true. What do you remember about your first day working here? A culture shock. I started
01:01working on the the carnival section when I was 17 and you sort of walk into the the carnival kitchen
01:10and you've got all the big joints of meat for the lions and it's all it's all it was all quite a shock.
01:18The biggest challenge has always been the visitors you know living with their expectations.
01:26Visitors want massive open enclosures and they all they also want to see the animals
01:31at the front of the enclosures they can get a good view of them and it's trying to marry those two and
01:35that's from day one of people you know comments about oh there's no animals where you think well
01:39there is an animal it's in an enclosure but you may not be able to see it and that's because the
01:44animal has chosen to be where it wants to be. We don't push the animals to be on show if they
01:48if they come and see my people they do and that's been the challenge from day one. Yeah and how do you
01:53deal with that? What you try and what you try and do is build your enclosures so that there are elements
02:00within the the enclosure that the animal likes being you know a hiding place but make sure those little bits
02:08are on view to the public as well. You've got enrichment and different ideas like that which
02:13could pull the animals out but you've still got to give the animals the opportunity that if they want
02:18to go away they want peace and quiet they've got it so 24-7 they can get away from people if they want
02:24uh because it is it is their home so they should have that uh that opportunity. How did you come to work
02:33here what's the story what might you come to be here? Oh that's it that's yeah I was a trainee boiler
02:39service engineer when I left uh school and I came to fix the heating in the bow enclosure just pure chance
02:49they worked at the zoo uh and I saw someone breaking ice on the ape house moat and I thought
02:55what that would be a great laugh that would if all I've got to do is break ice on a moat and I'm paid
03:00to do that that's a great laugh and that's why I came to work at the zoo and there was nothing more
03:05miserable job on a cold day than breaking ice but when you're 17 years old you think oh that'd be a
03:12good laugh that will and and that was that was that was purely I've always loved animals that's never
03:17been uh an issue but it was just that was the spark it was just that one visit uh and seeing that and
03:24I thought I'd be really good but it obviously the wrong reasons to join the zoo but uh it's worked well
03:29yeah and when you told your parents that you're giving up you know a potential career in sort of
03:33you know a sensible job in heat engineering to work at the zoo what did they think? They thought it was a
03:37passing fad and I'd give up on it uh and you know they're wrong uh you know it's a job that
03:46you you grow into but you do it it's odd to say but you become part of a family and and the whole zoo
03:54becomes part of where you actually come to work you know it just feel like home uh you've got the
04:00people here uh which you know you become close colleagues you've got the animals which you know you
04:06some of them you have incredibly close relationships I mean people have have pets and companion
04:11animals uh and you know that close bond but you know when you actually work with animals in the
04:16zoo you get that as well which is which is always wonderful. Do you have a favorite animal?
04:21Uh historically I mean I haven't actually directly worked with the animals I mean
04:26I've been the zoo director for uh 10 just over 10 years and before that was a curator so I moved away
04:33from the day-to-day work working with the animals but you'd probably have to say in the past it was the
04:38the male chimpanzee Pepe uh and the female elephant Flosser yeah both of which you know got an incredibly
04:45close bond to yeah and and they you knew they felt it as well they really liked having uh you close to
04:53them and they interacted well with you and it was a good bond and I love that element of it yeah but uh but
04:59moving away from that you you when you stop working with animals you think well the best thing really
05:04to do is is is if you can change their environments so you may not work with them directly but it's
05:09about improving the facilities for the animals and that's what I've been doing for the last 20-25 years
05:15now. And how different is the zoo now compared to 1980? Oh it's incredibly difficult different it's uh
05:23uh we're now in a position where we can invest the issue in the past is we we weren't generating uh
05:31enough money to uh improve the facilities for the animals uh we slowly phased some of the larger species
05:38out that we couldn't provide the space or the accommodation for and that's that's an ongoing
05:44process when we're still we're still phasing different species out because we're a zoo on 40 acres
05:50uh so we have to be realistic on what we what animals we can house here and we have to make sure
05:56that if we're going to house them we give them the best possible conditions yeah which is why you know
06:02we're replacing you know not only keeping elephants no longer keeping uh a lot of the biggest stock we
06:09used to take polar bears i mean you know we replaced the polar bears and now they'll be replaced by a much
06:14small species an arctic fox so you know you create what isn't a massive space for a polar bear but it's
06:21it's a good space for an arctic fox and you can give create a habitat for those animals i remember when
06:27the um elephants were phased it so lots of controversy about that wasn't there a lot of people were upset
06:33about it do you think you know did you have any regrets at the time about that well i worked with the
06:38elephants for for 19 years and i went with them to france and i stayed with them in france for a
06:43while uh but we have to be realistic that as i said it's not a massive site and unless we can provide
06:51the facilities for those animals no matter how wonderful they are then then we shouldn't house
06:56them and i mean that's that's internal pressure and of course external you know it's what the visitors
07:02want as well yeah uh you know they want to want to make sure that if you if you're going to keep
07:07animals in a captive environment that the facilities you're providing for them uh you know are first
07:12class how do the visitor numbers compare today to what they were like in the early 1980s
07:17uh they were low 200s maybe maybe closer to 150 000 and over the last decade we've averaged 300 000
07:29yeah apart from the two covid years which we were slightly down on um it surprises people that you
07:35know it's actually doubled if you like it is i mean it's got to go further we've we've got to continue
07:41to improve uh and we you know we've we live in a massive urban conurbation you know and as a site
07:50uh whereas our competition such as twy cross is a zoo you know we've got a zoo we've got a castle we've got
07:55a chairlift uh we've got a huge amount of you know heritage buildings on sites so we have a lot more to
08:02offer but we we've got to continue and we've got to sell it better than we are today you know we're
08:08bringing all the animal enclosure up to up to top quality but we've still got work to do you'll never
08:13stop you build a great enclosure you still want to make it better you know a lot of areas have been
08:18combined to make one bigger enclosure uh for one species which might have housed two or three
08:24historically and that process will continue you know the animals are part of breeding programs
08:30uh you know we fund conservation projects in the wild i'm really proud that you know we built a a new
08:37outdoor area for the orangutans a couple of years ago and subsequent to that we're investing 20 000
08:43pound a year into a rehabilitation center in borneo so although orangutans are living in a captive
08:52environment in the uk actually the benefit that they generate is actually helping animals in the wild you
08:58know directly helping orangutans that are that are being rehabilitated and put back into the wild so
09:05it's all part of a a bigger process uh although these particular orangutans may never move go back
09:11into the wild your hope is that generations further on you will be able to put animals back in the wild
09:18now because the old cliche about the chosen animals obviously it's because of the unpredictability
09:23i assume you've got some funny stories about those about what you've done what's happened
09:27i mean i have yeah there's untold one of the funniest ones was when we had uh
09:33a uh there was a a band or orchestra playing locally and they came up for a press shot
09:40uh and and someone had like their nice fancy trombone and they wanted a picture and it was actually the
09:47cameraman's fault because the cameraman said wouldn't it be a good idea to get the elephant to wrap its trunk
09:51around the the trombone and the guy was holding the trombone and we did that and then the elephant
09:56just just crushed the end of the trombone which we we did our best not to i mean he the person who's
10:04trombone he took it very very badly to be sure with you but it was kind of funny you know that you'd
10:10expect an elephant not to just apply a bit of pressure and see what happens so they're just
10:15just just stories like that stories about you know uh when the uh we were doing some press work with
10:23the elephants and the child just ran straight underneath the elephant's leg legs and and i was
10:28looking where it had gone and the elephant was looking where the child had gone just one of those
10:32things that shouldn't have happened but you know they're funny stories you look back now i mean
10:37it was great being able to walk the elephants around the zoo i mean we're we're in the castle now we
10:41used to walk them through here and then they stand at the other end which is the uh the north gate
10:47uh and then underneath the archway uh the listed archway the elephants would just stand there and
10:52have a really good scratch and uh and it was always quite funny because you get you know you you see
10:57these bits of bits of elephant skid falling off as they scratched on the castle and it was it was elements
11:02like that that were just like i always found uh amusing i do remember as well there have been times you
11:09now when the future the zoo was looked to be under threat at some time or other particularly about
11:1425 years ago i recall what's it what was it like at that time it was a very tough time we were all aware
11:23that the zoo wasn't developing and changing like it we wanted it to we wanted to uh phase some of the
11:32species out because the the facilities weren't uh first class we wanted to improve some of the
11:40facilities uh and the money wasn't there to do that and it and it's not easy phasing an animal out
11:46because you you either have to wait till he dies of old age or you have to find a new home and another
11:50zoo uh so it was just a very slow process it it was very depressing because you you weren't not only
11:58weren't sure of the future because the financial situation you weren't sure of the future because
12:04uh you weren't you knew you weren't able to adapt you weren't able to change uh but that that changed
12:11very slowly uh as we slowly started to do small exhibits and we're moving on and uh in the last
12:19by the end of this year over a four-year period we should have spent best part of three million pounds
12:24uh which has been generated from within the zoo uh and that's been spent the majority has been spent
12:30uh on the animal facilities with some small areas uh which have been improved for the visitors when
12:38we uh this year we've done a large play area uh which is actually in the former elephant enclosure so
12:43we built a large outdoor player timber play area uh and it'll be for the visitors and uh so entertain
12:50the children which is what it's about have a good day out and where do you see the
12:54so the future is um presumably you know you'll still be paying attention to it how do you see
12:58what you see is the future of the zoo i think i think it's very positive i mean the one good thing
13:03is we we have we have a very good staff structure here uh we got a lot of long-term uh employees who
13:11dedicated their life to to the business i mean i started years ago and i worked uh started as a
13:17trainee keeper and depends which way you look at i either worked my way up or worked my way down
13:22depending which way you look at a pyramid uh and and the person who's taking over from me matt lewis
13:28has done exactly the same route uh and a lot of our senior staff have worked here a long time and we
13:35have a long-term plan uh we have a vision for the historic buildings so we're working towards that and
13:42we also have a long-term animal plan of what we're going to develop and how we're going to develop the
13:46site so it is set out it changes it it has to adapt uh because of you know animals animals are born and
13:55animals die so that can change that can change your plans but yeah it is something that i mean you speak
14:02to a lot of people locally and a lot of their memories from childhood were around the zoo uh and
14:08it is trying to make sure that the you know future generations come you know we're we hold some of
14:15the most endangered animals in the world and we're part of a captive uh gene pool that will hopefully
14:23support the the wild populations you know it's not just a tiger in a cage uh you know they aren't
14:29they're any endangered species uh and and we are part of that that that global program to you know to make
14:35sure tigers are still uh around in the wild they seem like you've had a good time over the 45 years
14:42what what makes you think now is the time to um to leave now just because i'm getting older uh and
14:49it's one of those things there's still a lot of things i wanted to achieve but you do realize that
14:54you know you you probably never retire when you're 90 for that because you're always setting fresh goals
15:01fresh targets fresh improvements and uh and i want to spend more time with my kids and my family and
15:08uh i've got i've got a lot of things i want to do outside uh of work it doesn't mean i haven't loved
15:14what i'm doing but it will be it'd be nice to hand the keys over yeah and i'm confident that the
15:20management team that i'm leaving behind and the group of employees uh are well capable of running this
15:28as well as i can yeah which is which is a hell of a comfort to be honest with you but you're not
15:32worried that you're going to walk out and see your legacy drip down the drain yeah and i'm guessing you
15:38probably aren't going to be walking away completely what's your what are your plans for the future you
15:41know will you be involved in so tourism in some way or another no no no no there'll be no other
15:46businesses i mean i i've talked about you know i'll do some voluntary evenings here when we have events
15:52so i'll help out and things like that but the majority i've got grandchildren i've got children
15:58i've got an elderly father and uh you know his house needs work my house so there's a lot of stuff
16:05that i do need to do and i want to do it and enjoy it before you know ill health gets us all
16:11yeah well i wish you all a very happy retirement i'm sure everybody would do that uh it's mark
16:16answers from the express and start with thank you very much derek groves thank you thank you
Recommended
0:57
|
Up next
1:43
10:28
0:21
2:24
2:40
0:26