It was certainly a milestone project for us ’cause it was the first big zoological project that we undertook, that was really for us of huge magnitude because until then we had the big horn on the hill. We had a couple of fenced enclosures for gazelles and Oryx and… Read More
Yeah. You didn’t have much choice in it. I didn’t have much choice in it. So, I said, well, we’re gonna put signs in that fit our style of signage. So, the three or four main paths I had these signs, “A Tale of Two Cities,” was the sign. And… Read More
Tell us about the Eagle Canyon project. Read More
Was it a milestone for Living Desert, where’d you get the idea?… Read More
Who designed it?… Read More
Kevin needs one of these.” “Oh, okay, Kevin needs one of these.” “Can you help?” “Yeah, we can help with that.” And how important were local politicians in helping them build this vision?… Read More
Not very, because again, we were always totally private, so we didn’t get any money from local politicians. And we were in two cities. That caused all kinds of problems because the cities hated each other, and therefore they occasionally would use us as a ping pong ball. And one… Read More
And this was mandated, the signing, just as a quick follow-up, this was mandated by the Indian Wells?… Read More
I mean, we went just all kinds of places and I didn’t, I just let them, I didn’t make it like, “You’re coming here to see this.” I just, we’re just going and we’d be walking around and we’d just start looking at things and I’d go, and notice how… Read More
Now, speaking of people on the train, how is the development portion of Living Desert handled today?… Read More
Is it still a one person operation or do you have a team that was- There was a team by the time I left. We were very much because of my nature, and I tried to hire people that fit that mold and if they didn’t fit the mold, they… Read More
So, if you can get your development staff to really care about the institution, they don’t even have to beat development people. They just have to be people who care about their jobs and care about what we do and are willing to talk to people about it and follow… Read More
I was involved in selection only because I was the stud bookkeeper and I was one of the folks that knew how to run the software at that time to do in breeding coefficients and all that sort of stuff and so, but it was certainly an exciting time in… Read More
What was your role after this committee was put together?… Read More
Well, we put it together pretty early, actually. Once they, I would say we wound up with a long range planning committee in the early ’80s. And I hand selected the best I could, board members that I thought would be most open. And I had at that point, I… Read More
What did you learn about returning animals to the natural habitat?… Read More
How did that start to influence things at your zoo in Living Desert?… Read More
Well, I mean, we came into the Arabian Oryx re-introduction program, I knew it was going on because I was, at that point had already computerized the studbook. And so, we were looking at animals from reproductively as to who could go back, what animals were overrepresented in our populations… Read More
What hand did Living Desert have in returning Arabian Oryx to Oman?… Read More
How did the project begin?… Read More