This I think came from directly from Yuli Seal or indirectly. He never approached me directly with this, but he, you know, he approached Bill Conway and Bill Conway came out and stated that white tigers were freaks, but Bill had a short memory because a few years before that,… Read More
They produced two white offspring, that were heterozygous and one orange or, or two homozygous white and one hetero. And we thought that the National Zoo was gonna give us an offspring and they chose not to, they kept them. But they said we could take, they had another white… Read More
Now I know white tigers have been criticized, but white tigers had been reported in the wild very frequently. In fact, in Nepal, I think that at one time there was probably 16 animals in the wild and these animals were shot off by the Maharajas. White tigers have occurred… Read More
Were you one of the first zoos to have them?… Read More
No. Komodo dragons were a highlight for our zoo. I was visiting Indonesia and became very good friends with the director, and I saw that they had a number of Komodo dragons and we worked out a situation and I asked if it would be possible for Cincinnati zoo to… Read More
And I says, apparently we know how to take care of them. And the first zoo, I guess National Zoo also had, and they were given as a presidential gift as a state gift, and they bred them first and we bred them the following year. The second brood was… Read More
Can you tell us the story of your white tigers and what they meant to the Cincinnati Zoo?… Read More
Can you give us a few that are kind of very memorable to you?… Read More
There was another species that came out of China that we had a lot of fun with and proved very popular and helped us essentially build a new building. We had a pair of snow monkeys or golden monkeys from China, snub nose langur, and they proved very popular and… Read More
Ted Beattie was there at that time. We began a program called the Festival of Lights, which now represents 25% of our attendance in any given year, and it brings in a great number of dollars. So that was a winter festival, of course, around the holidays when nobody normally… Read More
I was chairman of the black rhino SSP and early on in our efforts, I was having some difficulties or they were having difficulties with me as well, because the earlier concepts of the ranchers in Texas, the ranchers in Texas wanted to expand the black rhino program by bringing… Read More
You said to us, there’s always something happening at the zoo. Read More
(Ed laughs) When we received the giant panda?… Read More
Yes, we did develop a good relationship, following, wondering if they could somehow get in on the action. You were also chair of the rhinoceros SSP program. Read More
How important were and are the Texas ranchers for long-term rhino conservation?… Read More
I got back home, I called David in London and I said, David, what if, when you’re on your way to Mexico City with the giant panda, you stop in Cincinnati, and with the increased attendance, we raised the money to build a facility in Mexico City to house your… Read More
You know, expand their facility so they can house your male?… Read More
And he thought about it for awhile, and then he puts a lot of checks and balances. You know, he didn’t want us going off and raising a bunch of money to build a new facility in our zoo, but he wanted to make sure those funds were designated, and… Read More
As an aside, when you got the giant panda, did all of a sudden you discover you had a lot of friends?… Read More
Do you feel the funding was well spent and how did that evolve?… Read More