Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park, formerly Birmingham Nature Centre, and before that Birmingham Zoo, is a small zoo on the edge of Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham, England. Owned and managed by Birmingham City Council.
As well as catering to tourists and locals, the zoo is actively focused in many scientific programs, such as involvement in the EEP captive breeding programmes with endangered animals, helping to highlight the plight of the world?s biodiversity through educational talks and campaigns.
The zoo is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).
Originally Birmingham Zoo opened within Cannon Hill Park on 1st of May 1964 by the Dudley Zoological Society Ltd. The site of the park was once part of a 16th century fulling mill, known as Pebble Mill.
It was designed to exhibit mainly young animals, but it also housed Dudley Zoo’s collection of monkeys and two dromedaries for rides.
Once said to be a little gem of a zoo. The zoo closed in 1973 for unknown reasons to then be reopened in 1974 by Birmingham City Council as the Birmingham Nature Centre. The centre and its entrance were originally apart of the Birmingham Natural History Museum. A rebranding effort in 2014 seen nature centre change its name to Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park to reflect its new vision.
Birmingham has had a number of Zoo?s formerly open across the city at some point, sadly with little known about them. The first zoo opened as the Birmingham and Midlands Zoological Gardens in Balsall Heath, opened in 1873. The second was Aston Lower Grounds Menagerie in Aston opened in 1880 and the last being Birmingham Zoo in 1910, later closed in 1930. There was also said to be a travelling menagerie, going by the name of J. E. James’s Menagerie.