Elephants are a zoo director’s nightmare in general. They’re large animals. They’re destructive. They can be dangerous. Yet they’re the most popular animals that the zoo has. And I think a zoo, if a zoo wants to, first of all, like all other animals that it maintains in houses, it… Read More
That’s why I looked for expansion in our elephant- We had five elephants living in an area that really was designed for one, and I went to the voters with that and I was able to get that turned around. It took some doing, but we were able to expand… Read More
Again, my experience has been with only, my work experience has been with, actually, it has been over my lifetime with three zoos, but the two major zoos in recent years of course have been Cincinnati, the longest span and a short span in LA, and both zoos, I felt… Read More
-American Zoo Association should be addressing now?… Read More
I think the American Zoo Association has to again, look at the broad picture and see ways of turning voter apathy in some way, without necessarily lobbying. I think that can be done through educative programs and through the communities that they’re working with, volunteer base so that the zoos… Read More
If there was an opportunity to form a consortium with a few select zoos to work with the country, to rescue a species and begin to institute breeding programs, what would you do differently from what was done to try and save the Sumatran rhino?… Read More
If there was an opportunity to work with a consortium to save a highly endangered species, I would try to be involved with some of the major zoos simply because they have the resources obviously to help in a large project, and a large project like the Sumatran rhino is… Read More
We didn’t fail except on the fact that Indonesia kind of pulled the rug from out underneath. We were supposed to obviously have more animals for that base, and we were building traps and they were logging right next to our traps. So there wasn’t much concern about- Once they… Read More
How can zoos improve their connection with this market to make zoos more relevant?… Read More
Any advice for the neophyte zoo director about the importance of marketing zoos?… Read More
What’s the most important aspect of marketing?… Read More
Well, in marketing a zoo, we were one of the first zoological parks to develop a marketing program. And our first full-time marketing director is Ted Beattie who’s now the director of the Shedd Aquarium. And the reason for that is when we began to evaluate our, we were having… Read More
Your opinion on their importance in today’s zoo world, if anything?… Read More
Well, I’ve been a strong proponent of material going out of the zoo, written material going out of the zoo. I think it keeps the zoo’s name in the community. I’m a strong advocate of guidebooks. I think if a person buys a guidebook, he takes that home, and that’s… Read More
It would be difficult for me to evaluate the question like that or a subject like that. Read More
I’ve even done that with reptiles, where people were horrified of snakes, and eventually, when you ease them into it and eventually get them to hold or touch a snake, it turns them around, and that’s the way you develop a strong interest in animals, and obviously that’s what we’re… Read More
Is the zoo or zoos doing a good enough job to educate people, to boost the image of zoos against sometimes what is an anti-zoo agenda?… Read More
Can they do more?… Read More
There our issues with the anti-zoo groups that I don’t think you will ever pacify or get people to agree with you on. I mean, they’re just dead set- There are certain hardcore groups that you’re gonna have a difficult time turning around. But I think we in the zoo… Read More
And again, in Los Angeles, we had the same thing. We had high city officials that were very good friends of the zoo. I remember Ron Deaton, he was a very high in the city administration. He was a tremendous friend of the zoo and came out to the zoo… Read More