I think there’s just a lot of potential for that to happen. You’ve talked about this a little, but for a long time, decades, you built a strong basis within the community for support of the zoo, but, in time, to see it start to deteriorate. Read More
I think we have a long way to go in that regard though. And I guess the other thing is I see zoos stepping out of character. I see zoos becoming more, I don’t know how to phrase it, maybe entertainment centers, than zoological centers. Particularly in the US, we’ve… Read More
And spiders are fascinating animals. And I’d rather people go to the zoo to see spiders than to see some cartoon character. I guess I’ve always felt that that, particularly children who are impressionable, I wish they would learn about animals as they are, accept animals for being themselves. And… Read More
So tomorrow, if you could make it happen, what issues would you want the zoos to address in the future?… Read More
If I could make it happen tomorrow, what issues should zoos address?… Read More
The issues that caused me the most concern when I was zoo director, (moans) gosh. I guess, strictly from the zoo person’s point of view, one of the issues was status of animals in the wild and captive propagation. Read More
Are we at zoos, are we being consumers?… Read More
Are we being producers?… Read More
That was, when I first got in the zoo field, that was an issue. I think that’s been resolved to a large degree by, to some degree, by SSPs and the tags, and breeding loans and cooperative readings, and so on. I think that’s all been a positive thing and… Read More
But today I think it’s probably more, you go from your home city where your zoo is to the destination of the conference, and back. So probably they’re not traveling and seeing zoos like we did. That’s an important thing, that’s another thing back to the curator question. That’s another… Read More
What changes have you seen during your years in the zoo field regarding visitor attitudes and administration at the national level?… Read More
Visitor attitudes in zoos, they’ve changed a lot because of, in my opinion, because of television, the influence of television and wildlife specials, some good, some bad. I’m not real enthused about some of the things that we see because they’re misleading. They give people the misconception of animals and… Read More
What issues caused you the most concern during the time that you were zoo director and how do you see the future regarding those same type of issues?… Read More
Do you think the average zoo professional is professionally well-traveled as you were?… Read More
I think I did have a great opportunity to travel a lot. And I traveled in the States to see other zoos or traveled to wild places. Read More
Other zoos?… Read More
Other zoos in particular. I think they travel some, but it’s rather than, we used to do what we call a zoo marathon. If the AZA was in Buffalo, New York, and we were in Topeka Kansas, then we’d figure out who’s gonna be able to go. And half the… Read More
What’s the breeding situation?… Read More
And it’s a lot of book knowledge, but books are important. They need to read books, but they haven’t had the hands-on experience. I sometimes think it’d be great if those who wanna be curators could spend time, not just working as a keeper in a zoo, but working on… Read More
When I talk to old-time zoo people, we always mentioned Hediger. Well, there’s a lot of people who don’t even know who Hediger is. And I cringe when I see that. I see that they’re losing touch with the perspective and culture of what zoos are. So like more hands-on… Read More