I’m tryin’ to remember at Nebraska Zoo, I think Oklahoma City, Brownsville, St. Louis. There were only a handful of zoos that had gaur. And he felt that if they were gonna survive, they had to be managed, just one herd. I think that’s one of the forerunners of our… Read More
Well for one thing, we’re tryin’ to do research on breeding elephants in captivity. So we did some experimental work with collecting semen from a bull elephant in Kansas City and shipping it by Greyhound bus. And then taking the semen was in capsules and the veterinarians would take the… Read More
So we know when the best time that they were fertile so that we sent them for a honeymoon with the bull in Kansas City. And outta the three, one in full-term and produced Raja the elephant. But that was one of my high priorities in research was elephant reproduction. Read More
Can you tell us what happened?… Read More
So our research began emphasizing not just on good fertility but also on contraception. So our zoo became a center for contraception research. Read More
Did you have particular research things that you wanted to champion?… Read More
Did Howard Baer?… Read More
Hang on, I had a question. It escapes me here. You’d mentioned that recreation and conservation, education were important. Read More
When you became director, was research something that was high on your list or how did you start to develop that concept?… Read More
Well because of my relationship with AZA and working with the Captive Breeding Survival Group, research became very important to me. And so I did make sure that all of my curatorial staff were involved in some research program. But with emphasis out of the veterinary hospital, we added a… Read More
Okay, and how was Howard Baer a help?… Read More
Well Howard Baer was a civic leader that was very powerful in the Republican circles and he had the dream about the Zoo Museum District and was always confidant of mine and a mentor. Had a good feel for all the public institutions in St. Louis. And the judge was… Read More
But you never got in trouble. Not serious trouble, no. Read More
(chuckles) Were there ever any challenges working with a group of those people?… Read More
There were at times. But if three or four were good strong supporters, they usually convinced the others. Read More
I answered to the chairman of the board. It was a board of 10 members. Five from the city, five from the county that were nominated by the committee. The city members had to have the mayor approval. The county had to have the county executives’ approval, but they nominated… Read More
So the chairman was part of that?… Read More
They then elected the chairman and so I reported to the chairman. But all decisions of the chairman had to be ratified by the board of 10. So you had to have a real good relationship with the chairman. I had to have a good relationship with him, hopefully all… Read More
Did you feel it was important to get those people to the zoo?… Read More
I think the behind-the-scenes tour is what got us interested in the zoo, absolutely. In fact, our travel program, we started out taking members on safari. Many of the people that went on safari in the early days were upcoming executives and civic leaders. And today, they’re among our major… Read More