Interview 4487 – Caption Index: 481
Was there any other recollections that you might’ve had about the assistant director, Saul Kitchener, that you worked with as a colleague?… Read More
Was there any other recollections that you might’ve had about the assistant director, Saul Kitchener, that you worked with as a colleague?… Read More
Saul was a, Saul was, I think we characterized him as a man who was always in motion. He had a hard time sitting still. He was somebody who was always looking ahead, thinking ahead, looking for new opportunities, looking to share knowledge, looking to share contacts. And the zoo… Read More
I don’t think there was any one of us, any one of us who was involved in that original importation, who didn’t say, why are we sending these animals to Europe?… Read More
Why aren’t these animals in our collection?… Read More
And we subsequently through the curatorial staff developed one of the most impressive spectral bear collections that has ever happened in North America. All of these things involve people. You’ve talked about some of the people. Read More
Yes, absolutely, absolutely and that was that versus the first case was an inside job, as opposed to strangers who thought it was a good idea to go to the zoo, to get these two young or infant animals for whatever purpose. In the case of the chimpanzee, it was,… Read More
And one morning at about eight o’clock when the old primate house, they let the chimps out, the chimps did what chimps do. And they came outside and they jumped up and down on their outside cage and outside door. And lo and behold, the door fell out and the… Read More
What would you say would be, you may have mentioned already, but the most significant animal or groups that you acquired for the zoo were instrumental in helping to bring. Oh, I remember a curatorial program with spectral bears, and I remember the first spectral bears that we imported. We… Read More
Maybe you could shed some light on, one was that a gorilla and a snow leopard were stolen from the Lincoln Park Zoo. They were indeed. Now one, the gorilla was stolen out of the zoo nursery and the snow leopard was stolen out of the lion house. It was… Read More
And ultimately those who were responsible, got caught because they couldn’t keep quiet about it. And the animals returned safely to the zoo. Read More
And there was another instance of a young chimpanzee being taken from the zoo that involved an inside animal keeper that ultimately also was returned?… Read More
Gorillas are one of, at the time, they were one of two species that were managed, not necessarily the way they should have been managed. They were managed politically. Gorillas went from institution to institution because of the rank of the institution, because of the importance of the institution and… Read More
How did that come about, and any stories on that?… Read More
Elephants and edentates are an interesting story for my, in my whole zoo career. The animal that I was most drawn to and knew had the potential to do me the most harm, were elephants. I, to this day, I visit zoos and I’ve visited zoos that have elephants just… Read More
Micromanaged, that’s not a harsh enough word. We were, he had overseers who made certain that everything happened the way it should happen in their view, not necessarily in the view of the animal managers or the animals. Read More
Another animal activity you were involved with was gorillas to Disney, how did that occur?… Read More
And what was the evolution of it?… Read More
When you micromanage it, it was successful. Tell me about koalas. Koalas were always a hot political football. They continue to be a hot political football. It’s not who you are, but who you know. Lincoln Park decided that it was to embark on koalas. And we called in relationship… Read More
We don’t care if it’s a male and a female. We don’t care if they’re geriatric. We just want them here so the people of Chicago can know something about koalas and the plight of koalas in Australia. And they said, “Sure, we’ll help you out. You need to build… Read More
And it was a nightmare in logistics. Pleasant nightmare or just- Not all pleasant, it was a learning experience for all of us. Read More