Her name was Betsy Dresser. Eventually she got her PhD and she was a reproductive physiologist, and she badly wanted to work in zoos and she badly wanted to work in the Cincinnati Zoo. And she thought there would be great application for reproductive science in zoo animals, that we… Read More
So we developed a Carl H. Lindner, it’s called CREW, the Center for the Reproduction of Endangered Wildlife. And Betsy was our first director of research. And the first remarkable thing she did was she took- It was the first time it had ever been done, where one species was… Read More
One eland got pregnant and developed, one species giving birth to another, it was the first time it was ever done, and it hit the front pages all over the world. And we’ve been able, as time goes on, we’ve been able to really increase our role in that science. Read More
Whenever you try to put the male and female together, they would about kill each other. And I tried to get Betsy involved in doing more research on it. I thought if you could time the estrus of the rhino, perhaps putting them together at that time, it would be… Read More
And the parakeet was because of women’s fashion. At the turn of the century or before the turn of the century, it was very popular for women to wear feathers in their hats, the millinery industry and the birds were killed off and also for the pet industry even even… Read More
And I think the icing on the cake was that when we began to disassemble the building, we found an original cage plaque of the Carolina parakeet. So we saved one of those buildings, we moved it and we made it a commemorative small museum that commemorates the loss of… Read More
Maruska. Okay, we are all set. Tell me how important science and research was to your vision and generally to zoos in the United States or around the world. I think what zoos do best is to, and what their real purpose and passion, I mean their immediate purpose and… Read More
How tricky was it to preserve the historical treasures, these monuments to these animals and balance saving the heritage and developing new facilities at the zoo?… Read More
These were kind of monuments that might not be moved. Read More
How did that work in with the whole vision you had for the zoo?… Read More
The Cincinnati Zoo and we can be perhaps a little closer to extinction than any other zoo, since we had two very highly visible species, the last of which died in our zoo, Martha, the last passenger pigeon, one of the most abundant of all land birds. Audubon and Wilson… Read More
Obviously it leaves them at a loss. So somehow we have to control population by at least 40%. We have to cut carbon by the year 2020. That’s half the time, or we may hit the tipping point. And when you hit the tipping point, forget it, there’s no coming… Read More
So, and we know definitely that in studies that have been done in Africa and programs that have been worked in Africa, if you can get a local community involved and somehow benefit from those national parks, as an example, those national parks will be protected. But you can’t tell… Read More
And I don’t see any way out. And that’s why I’ve become perhaps a little more less optimistic than I was in my younger years. Talking about conservation, Cincinnati Zoo is famous in a way historically for having the last two species of birds that have gone extinct famously in… Read More
Conservation in the zoo field is a- it’s a hot word today. One day, I remember I had five staff members and I asked five staff the members to define conservation. All I was hearing was conservation, conservation. Define it for me. Well, four did and the other one didn’t,… Read More
Population biologists are now predicting by the year 2050, we’ll have a population of nine to 10 billion people straining the capabilities of this planet. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for a wild animals or wild places. So we’ve got to address that, and I don’t think any… Read More
Well, what does that do for polar bears and walrus and ring seals and all of these other Arctic animals?… Read More
One thing that we wanted to do is bring people and animals together. We often thought that the public seeing an animal behind glass or at a distance, if we could get people and animals to have contact, at least in certain areas, it would improve the visitor’s experience. So… Read More
You talked about the cheetah and its ability with conservation. Read More
How important was conservation to the zoo and to your vision?… Read More