And he told me quite a bit about British Guiana. And that’s why I decided to go to British Guiana. And he introduced me. There was a gentleman who was director of the Natural History Museum in Georgetown, British Guiana. By the way, that’s a sleepy town that’s, you know,… Read More
But so when I first went down there, I went over to the museum and met him and got some ideas on where harpy eagles might be?… Read More
I did a lot of research. So I have to credit two people, O’Neil at the Field Museum in Chicago, but also Dean Amidon who was curator of ornithology at the American Museum. And he’s the one that really encouraged me to go ahead and do this down in Guyana. Read More
How have things changed for the harpy eagle from when you did your original research to today in that area?… Read More
What was it like when you were studying these animals in their natural habitats?… Read More
Well, first of all, I think that I have to go back to that old saying in Earlham College, when I graduated from a Liberal Arts College, nobody told me what I couldn’t do. I didn’t know that I didn’t think that it would be that difficult. I have learned… Read More
And Africa was sort of a jumping point when I came back from Africa and started doing The Today Show and had all the animals and things like that. It gave me the self-esteem to think that I could go to the Amazon, even though I never knew much about… Read More
Why did you choose the harpy?… Read More
Well, the harpy was… Actually, I had seen a harpy eagle, I think it was in the national zoo. It was a crippled harpy eagle that had only one eye. And if you ever see harpy, you never forget it. They’re very spectacular. The biggest eagles in the world. And… Read More
So that’s how I got fascinated by the harpy being in the attraction, the Birds of Prey attraction in Florida and working with the one there. And there were only… By the way, there were only like two, maybe three harpy eagles in zoos in America when I decided to… Read More
No, I had the opportunity. Oh, I was given an honorary doctor’s degree, but I don’t think that was in 1960. I think that was a little bit later after I’d been on Wild Kingdom. But I had an opportunity to go ahead with my graduate degrees. I could have… Read More
Well, I got a little heavy on the adventure (chuckles) and the experience, and didn’t really go back and do the… I could’ve gone back and got a master’s degree, but I didn’t do that. But later on for Earlham College, I got an honorary doctor’s degree. From all those… Read More
This a little booklet was called A-U-K, AUK. And I’d written an article for AUK on the harpy eagle, the first studies of the herp eagles. And one of the producers from The Today Show had heard about me and knew me from that original Zoo Parade Show and also… Read More
And the Today Show saw that story in Life Magazine. That’s where it was. You were doing a lot of things. You were here were there. Read More
In 1960, you went back to school for a graduate degree?… Read More
Did you approach them?… Read More
How did you get that initial, Today Show a big deal. Read More
How did you initially get there?… Read More
It was a big deal. Well, I was introduced to some of them when they came down to do Zoo Parade, and some of those people knew some people on the Today Show. But also when Dave Galloway, when I was at this Birds of Prey attraction, I think I… Read More
Had you ever thought about wanting to work in a zoo or become the head of the zoo at that time or was that?… Read More