Well, our ability to acquire, I mean, that’s where we got most of our collections was from animal dealers, I mean, there’s no question about that. And we had a lot of animal dealers that we could go to and we relied on them very, very heavily, especially for the… Read More
And so it’s all basically done through contact with zoos or through the SSPs. Read More
Now, when you were a temporary as general curator, what would you say was one of the more important things that you learned at this time that helped you later on?… Read More
And I think that trip to south America, but that was about it. Read More
So when you were, but mostly you were acquiring animals early on, even when you were general curator temporarily, you were acquiring animals from animal dealers?… Read More
Yes. Read More
No, I was not, no, I think I might’ve been supervised. Read More
But you initiated it?… Read More
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