Well, in the conservation area, I think fairly active, from the standpoint of I’ve been involved since day one, you know, with CBSG. And so, you know, I’m making the, the CBSG meetings and participating in CBSG activities and fundraising for them. Unfortunately, as you know, as a retired zoo… Read More
Space wise. Well, I think there’s a, I think there’s another case, you need to give them, number one, elephants don’t need 40 or 50 acres, because if you look at elephants in the wild, in places where there’s good water and good forage. If there’s good water available and… Read More
He’s a big, impressive animal. These exhibits where you’re up on top, looking down at an elephant, diminishes the elephant. I don’t think the elephant gives a hoot, (chuckling) but if you’re going to look at, you know, if you’re going to look at the biggest land animal in the… Read More
Those, you know, those, those enrichment kind of things. And given, given the animal, whether it’s an elephant or an orang or a gorilla or whatever, something to do I think is important. It’s important both for the, you know, for the animal and for the public, unless of course… Read More
Again, if you’ve got a big, tough male, you don’t go in with him, but female orangs can be worked in with. (mumbles) I think you can do, you can, you can accommodate the orangs. You can, you it’s beneficial to the, to the animals, if you can work in… Read More
And granted, if you’re working, you know, in close contact, you will occasionally bleed. Read More
Because of your ability to have vision of exhibits, what kind of exhibitry should zoos be thinking about with elephants?… Read More
Yep. Read More
What’s your view regarding zoos and elephants, maintaining elephants, and how should it be done correctly, if possible?… Read More
Well, if possible. For one thing, I would say right up front, you know, I recognize that the, that the world is changing, that the demographic of our keepers is changing, that we don’t have the, you know, the, the six foot two, six foot three rough and tumble farm… Read More
Has that been proven?… Read More
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Much more effective dollars in TV or whatever. Billboards because you get the number of exposures that you get and it’s big and it’s on the way, you know, and you do it as they’re coming into the zoo. Billboards are really effective. They may be ugly,… Read More
If you could, what would you tell AZA about the issues that they should be addressing now for zoos?… Read More
Well, the one of them was one we just touched on a little bit. I think AZA should take a more active role in representing zoos and defending zoos to both the animal rights people, the PETAs, the HSUSs, and, and to US Fish and Wildlife and, and to the… Read More
Is there any advice you’d give to the neophyte zoo director about the importance of marketing zoos, and what would you say are the most important aspects of marketing?… Read More
Well, I think, you know, keeping, you know, keeping, keeping the, you know, keeping the zoo story in front of the public as much as you can. You know, even, even little things people are interested in, you know, even even a birth or animal activities or, you know, anything… Read More
And that’s why zoos that have got regular bits on, you know, on a TV show or on TV shows and/or, and/or a good reporter that, you know, is that once a week, you can, you can get it in the newspaper, you know, that’s. Well, and of course the… Read More
I think you get them up close and personal. There’s nothing in the world like getting nose to nose with a tiger or a gorilla or whatever, through you know, with nothing between you and that animal but a pane of glass. What would be even better is if you… Read More
And they’d walk around and they’d feel the elephant, you know, hold them up and let them stick their hand in the elephant’s mouth and feel elephants trunk, put them up on the back of the elephant. You know, there’s zoos that no longer let the kids touch a Python… Read More
That, you know, that really doesn’t work. We do, I think, you know, I think both Disney and, and SeaWorld all, the animal ambassador, I think we’re doing more and, and a lot of people doing the animal ambassadors where you take the animal that you can let them touch… Read More