I haven’t had much contact or hardly no contact with South America because the vicuna was, at one time, in danger. And it was from millions of specimens in the ’50s. It was down to 10,000 in the ’60s. But at that time, we kept in Europe, just 40 vicunas,… Read More
Now, when you were doing this, this was under the time you were the curator or the registrar?… Read More
Why did you start it?… Read More
Why was this important?… Read More
In the sixties, a lot of international studbooks were started and this was a field I was very much interested in. And so I checked in which species is Zurich still strong. And we, at that time, usually kept two breeding groups of vicunas and have had the most births… Read More
what was your first full-time position, the curator of birds and mammals?… Read More
My first full-time position was the curator of mammals and birds in Zurich Zoo, yes. In 1969, you began the international studbook for the vicuna. Read More
What was your involvement?… Read More
Now you were the registrar. Read More
Did you change jobs?… Read More
Well, at the same time, I was a assistant, scientific assistant at the university because Heini Hediger had a university department on animal psychology at Zurich Zoo, so I kept these two positions. And I changed position only after retirement of Heini, in 1974, when I became a curator of… Read More
What were his strong points?… Read More
What were his weak points that you saw?… Read More
He was a very noble person, rather a shy person, and he esteemed animals in his way. “The love for animals”, he always said, “is not the care of animals, “but to understand animals and to recognize animals “as their own personality.” So somebody not knowing him would have thought… Read More
What kind of a zoo director did you find him?… Read More
I mean, you said he was your hero. Read More
Did he mentor you?… Read More
Well at that time?… Read More
Heini Hediger, of course, was my hero up there. And he learned to know me more in detail in August 1959, when two kea parrots from New Zealand escaped. And at that time, kea parrots were a rarity. And we lured them back into their aviary with the help of… Read More
The keepers knew me very well. They called me with my first name and I called them with their family name. And I think I was accepted by the whole zoo staff, yes. Read More