Well, I attended a giant panda conference with Warren Thomas in Beijing. And my reasons for going to China were not necessarily involving at that time giant pandas, they were involving the lesser panda, the red panda. I was gonna meet with officials to find out how we could acquire… Read More
It was a local zoo show that Bill Hoff, who was then the director, hosted along with our veterinarian, and I was to film things and they were gonna use that as part of their TV experience, the way zoos collect animals. So we went all along the east coast… Read More
That has changed today thankfully. You put a lot of resources into having a giant panda at Cincinnati for a short amount of time. Read More
How difficult was that?… Read More
When I was at the zoo, I was a very fortunate individual. I was enamored with life, it could be an insect or it could be an elephant. I had no specific animals that I was- if I did specialize in an animal, or I took a great interest in… Read More
Was this your idea?… Read More
Could it be done today?… Read More
Well, we were building a new nocturnal exhibit in Cincinnati, and I had visited Houston at a conference, and Houston was displaying vampire bats. Again, I know vampire bats were displayed by or kept by Dent Myers many, many years ago, but I hadn’t seen, his were the first vampire… Read More
How would you like to be remembered?… Read More
I’d like to be remembered as he cared, and that he took the Cincinnati Zoo from one of the worst, one of the lowliest zoos in the country when he came in to one of the top rated zoos in the country. Read More
When you were at Cincinnati Zoo, did you have a favorite animal?… Read More
And ultimately, we may be the ones to face extinction if we’re not very, very careful. And there doesn’t seem to be the public will to change these things, and somehow we’ve got to be thinking politically, and I don’t know how we do that without getting involved in areas… Read More
You know about the profession that you’ve devoted so many years of your life, what do you know it if you could give me up capsulate, what do you know about that profession?… Read More
Well, being in the profession that I’ve spent the greater part of my life in has led me to, to research the history of the management of animals in captivity, how that has vastly changed from menageries to institutions that- From privately held menageries, which is where it all started,… Read More
I think that has entirely changed our whole role of what we are. We still have to be popular places, still have to be places that are fun to come to, but we have to add the underlying areas that we have to be certainly more scientific in our approach… Read More
Aside from the Cincinnati Zoo, are there other zoos in the world that you particularly admire and why, and where are they?… Read More
There are a few zoos in the world that I have over the years, I’ve seen a lot of zoos that I’ve formed a particular attachment to. One, I think the Singapore Zoo just a gem. It’s a wonderful, got a wonderful climate, a wonderful collection and beautiful grounds, and… Read More
Going back and forth?… Read More
Excellent. Now manatees, obviously, Cincinnati Zoo is only one of two zoos outside of Florida that are allowed to keep manatee. And we’re really a holding area, we’re a reservoir and if animals are injured, we bring them back to health and then they’re taken back to the wild. We… Read More
It’s got a few museum elements that I think really add to the exhibit. Read More