Crucially important. I have been forced to go on two or three management courses in my career and I’ve always approached them cynically, tongue in cheek and you know, but I think probably the most important lesson and, and, and it was one that was common to the, the various… Read More
How important do you think it is for a zoo curator or director to make rounds?… Read More
So again, when it was here, the, the seal line pool had was long since passed its cell by date. There was no, no filtration, no water management. It was a, a salt water pin AED in a fresh water pond. And it was no, you know, we couldn’t do… Read More
I think you can achieve it without spending a fortune to do so. But it involves a little bit of imagination or, or rethinking the use of an existing space. So as I said, you know, what was a fairly mediocre giraffe enclosure, albeit the animals did really well, it… Read More
And I thought it was like, okay, we want to expand the group. And I thought, right, we’re gonna put them in the giraffe enclosure. Now the giraffe enclosure at London Zoo, though the giraffes did really well. Our breeding record was second to none. It was not exactly the… Read More
I think, I mean a lot of it can be if you’re working in a rural facility, you know, I’ve referred back to the, the Highland Wildlife Park in, in Scotland on, on a number of, for a number of these questions. And it’s a rugged highland landscape. And so… Read More
How do you try and achieve a wow impact in exhibit design?… Read More
When people think of conservation, they think of, of, you know, rhinos and elephants and tigers, and I think it’s for a zoo that wants to make a contribution, there’s, is there any point in dev in, you know, giving your, devoting your resources on top of what everybody else… Read More
And he had the audience in stitches about talking about port of snail conservation, the story of, of saving the port of snail. And so in vertebrates are, are definitely not my area of expertise, but I look at what Paul and his team and, and what other places now… Read More
What worries me is something we’ve already touched upon is zoo’s not devoting enough space, effort, resources towards conservation. Read More
What gives me hope?… Read More
But what gives you hope?… Read More
I might be wrong. I mean I’m no, I’m no expert on, on the human species by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s how I see it Regarding conservation, what worries you?… Read More
You can see one elephant house here, an elephant house here, an elephant house here, they’re all different. The same is true of, of all their interpretation, which is why, going back to your question, but what makes a good curator visiting other zoos, seeing what they do and how… Read More
Emmens, the old Emmen zoo had an elephant museum attached to their elephant facility and it was fantastic. And it was all manner of elephant memorabilia and stuff about the history and the, the cultural links with Asian elephants and with different Asian countries. And it was fascinating and, and… Read More
And I think that’s also one of the, the interesting aspects of, for people like us who are interested in zoos, really interested in zoos is everywhere you go, right?… Read More
Because as far as the general public, a real question, particularly in somewhere like a big cat facility, how do you clean the tigers out without getting your head ripped off?… Read More
’cause the idea of, of locking cats away and working in a safe environment is not something that would generally occur to them. And so the other half of the label was all about a keeper’s job. So keeping records, food preparation, enrichment, cleaning the enclosure. And then we did… Read More
I think, oh god, I mean almost every zoo you go to, you see a different style of, of interpretation be it, I mean obviously, you know, exhibit design has had a role to play an interpretation, but even if we just talk about, you know, the signage, the, the… Read More
What would you say has been the greatest area of development in the way a zoos have interpreted their collections to visitors?… Read More