I initiated it, yeah. And we went down and we spent two weeks in Florida collecting, we brought back a huge collection of herps and a lot of them, we sent to other zoos. And it was really the first time anybody, I think in the zoo, especially the keepers… Read More
Yes. Read More
For the zoo and what was it?… Read More
It was to acquire reptiles. And I was really surprised that they allowed us to do this. I mean, I remember I went to Eisenberg and got his permission and it was four of us. It was Jack Armstrong, Jack DePreto, Leash Mel who was a keeper in the Reptile… Read More
You were the general curator?… Read More
And it’s still the case today, I mean, a lot of these species that normally were available and you could get them from dealers that brought them in from the wild doesn’t happen anymore. And if it does that, the cost of obtaining a large mammal is just astronomical. So… Read More
Now, I’m sure AZA is gonna disagree with that pretty dramatically, but still, I feel it’s a major problem, and it’s only gonna get worse as time progresses. And most zoos can’t deal with the private sectors because of the AZA restrictions. They’re not dealing with the animal ranches in… Read More
And once they reach that space, they can’t keep producing animals if they don’t have a place to dispose of them. And AZA won’t address the euthanasia issue at all. I mean, it’s been brought up a number of times, and I don’t know if we wanted to go one… Read More
Was this your first trip to acquire animals?… Read More
And it’s instantaneous and you don’t have to spend hours searching the web. So anyway, it’s too bad. A bit of a broader question, and as you were again part of the zoo in the ’60s and ’70s, federal legislation, more interest in animals and endangered species, zoos had kind… Read More
How did the National Zoo change and continue to respond to those kinds of pressures?… Read More
Did you feel pressure?… Read More
The Endangered Species Act in, and I believe it was ’75, but I’m not sure of the exact date, but it changed everything. I mean, it really did. I mean, the acquisition of animals became a very difficult task. And before you could go to, I don’t know how many… Read More
Who were your mentors?… Read More
Well, Ted, was certainly my mentor. I mean, he didn’t actually tell me I had to write papers. I think that was something that just happened. And it happened because of things that we were doing in the zoo that were really kind of first time things. I mean, first… Read More
And these were just kind of vignettes, they were things that were going on and I thought were really interesting. You can’t get people to write papers now. I mean, it just, I don’t know about other zoos, but I’ll tell you the national, it’s like pulling teeth. We have… Read More
The curatorial position was funded by the Friends of the National Zoo. It was for an 18 month period. These people had to apply for the position. They all had PhDs and they would come in and they would work with our curatorial staff and with the keepers. And they… Read More
Every single one of them went out and got well paid, very, very good positions as curators, general curators. And in some cases, even directors and that program fell apart in the ’90s. And I tried to instigate it again when I came back the second time and we ended… Read More
A question about, as you were under a Dr. Reed and you were doing these trips and so forth to, two parts, did you have mentors at the time, whether it be Dr. Reed or other people who were shaping and talking to you that you respected and who started… Read More
And is it in your opinion continuing today?… Read More