Interview 366 – Caption Index: 87
Or a most unusual bird that you were so excited about?… Read More
Or a most unusual bird that you were so excited about?… Read More
We, besides the chaos, we haven’t had many escapes. But we have had two or even three times escape of our wolf pack. And that was a very difficult thing for me because the female wolf, for unknown reasons, hated me. And when the wolf packs roam free through the… Read More
How did the keepers, they knew you, did they accept you in this higher position?… Read More
Well, that’s quite different from America. I remember being probably just about 20 years when the director of Detroit Zoo asked me to call him by his first name. For us Europeans, that was something very special. With Heini Hediger, I was Mr. Professor until maybe 10 years before his… Read More
Were there any situations in the zoo where, as curator, an animal you’ve mentioned the keas getting out, where an animal escaped and you had to do things to get them back in?… Read More
Do you have any memorable stories of the time that you were the curator?… Read More
Well of course it was, I would say my main and longest period of work, curator of birds and mammals in Zurich Zoo for 20 years. And there are so many stories, especially after Heini Hediger, who was a very strong director and a very knowledgeable zoo biologist. His successor… Read More
These were the main breeding groups I built up to reach a self-sustainable breeding group. So this was very good. And it was a time full of work. At that time, the curators did all the import/export work and since we’ve have good breeding successes, we had to export, especially,… Read More
Now, how old were you when you were the curator of mammals and birds?… Read More
How old were you?… Read More
I was 31 when I became curator of mammals and birds, yes. Read More
Now, did you have to have permission to do this, or because you were on holiday, you could do what you wanted, from the Zurich Zoo?… Read More
Well, I haven’t had a treaty. With Heini Hediger, you never have had a treaty. It’s just by handshaking that you were appointed and so on. And I surely have asked Heini Hediger whether he thinks it’s okay that I replace the zoo director. But it was a very friendly… Read More
In 1967, when you were on a holiday replacement for the director of the Heidelberg Zoo, wasn’t that a little unusual?… Read More
Well, Heidelberg Zoo, at that time, was a very small German zoo. And his director kept and bred Mediterranean tortoises, and, therefore, we knew each other very well. And he was a very skeptical director. He didn’t want to have a replacement from his own organization. And so he asked… Read More
Whereas in Heidelberg, I really had to do everything and I really mean everything. It started that I lived on the zoo’s ground. By the way, the only time I ever lived on the zoo’s ground. I wouldn’t like to do it for a longer time. And it started that… Read More
So it was quite a different world than today, keeping a studbook. Read More
And were you, as a studbook keeper, were you instrumental in helping to pair animals, as they do today?… Read More
So studbook, of course, is just a registry of animals and the start of regional breeding programs was much later. So it was really not the recommendation for transfers. Read More
It was the time I was a registrar. And there was a reason to start an international step book. Because at that time, zoos still usually imported wild code specimens. And the reasoning for starting the studbook was to reach a self-sustaining population of vicunas that can act as ambassador… Read More