You keep the opossum, send us the tiger back.” That’s when zoo people could laugh at yourself type thing. (chuckles) Well, what would you say are some of the most significant changes that you made in animal care when you were at the zoo?… Read More
Well, there were a lot of safety issues when we came. I mean, just for a keeper, even in the older exhibits for a keeper to open the transfer gate and tigers or bears, whatever, to reach up to grab the metal handle of the transfer gate, an animal could… Read More
And I think that’s great. First of all, to keep the animals, like I used to call it occupational activity, give animals things to do within their environment there to keep them active. Plus it makes them more active for the public, for the visitor. But those can be used… Read More
And everybody looks at me, what are we gonna do?… Read More
(Gary chuckling) So I’m thinking, oh my gosh, if we hook the crate back up to the exhibit and open it up and let the tiger out so we can get the opossum out, she’s not gonna go back in today, or maybe not tomorrow. We gotta start this whole… Read More
What are we gonna do?… Read More
Were they doing it all perfect or did you see things that ultimately you had to changed?… Read More
Well, when I first came to Topeka, animal handling was more cowboy slash farm techniques than sometimes thinking about it or preparing the animal for it. And it was a lot of, the old days, you would push or prod, or use a hose or whatever. Instead of, for example,… Read More
So this was a new thing for a lot of the old timers at the zoo at the time. So we tried to incorporate a little more management practices. I mentioned the Sedgwick County tiger, which Ron Blakely is having us hold until he got his new tiger exhibit done. Read More
A plain opossum. Read More
So do you think this love of animals prepared you for your zoo profession ultimately?… Read More
Yes, when I was a youngster, the animal kingdom was fascinating to me. And when I was a boy, I wanted to do two things. One was work in a zoo and other was to go to Africa. But before the thought of working in a zoo entered my mind,… Read More
So I used to go to the Kansas City Zoo and knew all these animals even before I worked there and it was just, it’s the greatest thing in the world. (chuckles) When you became a zoo director, how did you change the handling of the animals at the zoo?… Read More
Were there challenges, were there problems, crating, sending animals to zoos?… Read More
Your mother had her hands full when you were a kid. Read More
You actually had a zoo in your backyard?… Read More
Yes. (laughs) When I was a youngster, we lived in Kansas City, Missouri, in 7,700 block of Summit Street in a very small little one-wood-frame house. And my mother was extremely tolerant, bless her soul, because I was one of these kids in the neighborhood, a lot of zoo people,… Read More
That was great, because they would, fall weather came, they would dig down and the spring came, they would come back up. I loved seeing that. But lots of things and a tarantula, and a boa constrictor named Julius Squeezer or Victor The Constrictor, or whatever you wanna say. Anyway,… Read More
Did the glare of the job of being zoo director ever wear off?… Read More
Being a zoo director is a glamorous job and being a zoo director in Topeka, Kansas is especially a glamorous job because we used to have a weekly TV program, and not long, but every week. And a lot of zoo directors said, oh gosh, I don’t like the fishbowl… Read More