I think I probably have spoken to issues that I’d like to see zoos address in the future, and I think if we don’t address those aspects of environmental change and dealing with the issues like population, we’re gonna lose everything or a good portion of what we have. Good… Read More
Did you realize community support was important to the Cincinnati Zoo and other zoos, or did this start to take shape where you realized you had to have that support and how important was it to Cincinnati?… Read More
When I started in the zoo business, at least in Cincinnati in Lincoln Park, we had a good visitation. We were a free zoo, municipal zoo. So we didn’t have many of the problems that I faced when I came to Cincinnati. In Cincinnati, we had a situation where we… Read More
So, but I’ve seen, with good public relations, and we got people out in the field, we started bringing experts in to a kind of look over how we could better bring the public’s awareness of our institution through marketing and advertising and also good public relations, and eventually by… Read More
What issues caused you the most concern during your career, and how do you see the future regarding those same type of concerns?… Read More
Well, when I was in Cincinnati, we really did not have to confront- We didn’t have the problem with animal rights groups. Maybe to a small extent, but nothing that was major that we couldn’t handle with good public relations. When I was in Los Angeles, it was a different… Read More
Do you think that’s a problem or how should curators be trained today with what is expected of them?… Read More
Well, my observation of present day curators, at least in a number of institutions, is that they spend too much time behind a computer and not enough time in the zoo itself. You cannot operate a zoo nor can you manage a zoo without being involved in the grounds and… Read More
What changes have you seen during your years in the zoo field regarding visitor attitudes and administration at the national level?… Read More
What kind of criteria would you recommend to small again and medium sized zoos when thinking about future exhibits or conservation type exhibits?… Read More
Well, if you take a small zoo, again, it depends on the geography in some sense, because one can play off the other. Is a zoo is found in a threatened ecological zone, it could put a lot of its emphasis in that threatened ecological zone and work to rebuild… Read More
Could you give us your thoughts on how best to deal with these type of groups and did you have to?… Read More
Should it be regional, western hemisphere, should it be endangered species, non endangered species?… Read More
Should they have a collection focus or does it matter?… Read More
I think a smaller zoo- I think if a smaller zoo is to focus its collection, it depends on geography. I think if a small zoo is located in a say, ecological zone that’s quite interesting, like Arizona Sonora desert, they could focus on that aspect of their collection, wrap… Read More
How can small or medium zoos, we talked about involvement, get involved in wildlife conservation today either nationally or internationally?… Read More
How can they play their role?… Read More
Well, I think a smaller zoo, obviously the area they have to be very careful that they don’t use taxation or tax dollars or part of their city budget, but they can rally their community. They can get an interesting project or develop an interesting project and go out to… Read More
Considering financial resources that are available to these small or medium sized zoos, what should be the focus of their collection?… Read More
Well, when I look at the zoo profession as a whole, and I look around, at least in my era, the major outstanding zoos were led by animal men, people that understood- It’s likened to me if you were to take all your finances, all the money that you had… Read More