Tyred of monkeying around: Dudley Zoo chimps get new toys
It's fair to say chimps at Dudley Zoo won't get 'tyred' of their late Christmas presents any time soon.
They have been given the old tyres off the attraction's land train to play with.
Dudley Zoo's locomotive, called Dotto, has been so popular with visitors over the busy festive period, it has needed a new set of tyres for the new year.
And rather than simply chucking the old tyres away, staff decided to send them to the chimp house.
The new tyres for the train were fitted by Dudley Zoo's Site Service Manager, Malcolm Clements.
Mr Clements said: "The tyres we use on the train are stronger than your average car tyre, as it's quite a difficult path that it has to cope with, which is steep and bendy and not your average course for a train of this type.
"The tyres are bigger than average too, similar to tractor tyres and can't be bought off the shelf, so we have to order them in locally.
"We change them regularly so are always testing different compounds to find which type works best, but we've always got two sets on site at all times, just because they're not readily available."
For more information on the zoo, visit www.dudley zoo.org.uk
