And what we did was start a junior curator program. We did this at Fort Worth, we did it at Portland. Big deal in Portland. And we did it in Oklahoma City. And it worked. And we had, when we started out, we had about six of them. And I… Read More
They would go through the routine was they would spend Saturday morning in class listening to zoo people give talks on the zoo, on our zoo, zookeeper. Or we had a visiting zoo professor, zoo director. If you’d come down we would’ve had you to give a talk to them. Read More
How can zoos improve their connection with kids and teenagers to heighten their zeal and awareness about the natural world?… Read More
So I stopped one of them. I said, “You know, I’m from Galveston and I’m interested in herpetology.” “Oh, well you need to talk to so-and-so, Bill Millstadt, he’s our curator, junior curator of herpetology.” So they took me to Bill Millstadt, who’s became quite an active herpetologist in his… Read More
Well, I can tell you what worked for me at three different zoos, but I have to go back. I was about 18 in Galveston, Texas. There weren’t any zoos in Galveston. And I went to the Houston Zoo. And right in the middle of the Houston Zoo was a… Read More
And then I would, I was told, “Well now, up at about five or 10%,” “Why?” “Well, we get our budgets based on this sort of thing, show that people are using the zoo.” I never did that because I really wanted to know how many people were coming into… Read More
And I think zoos need to be very sensitive and do whatever they can within discreetness, within the realm of, that we’ve all pretty well agreed on of what a zoo should do and what it should be. They need to work on that, and make sure it gets across… Read More
Well, I mean, I don’t want to answer it with a simpleton, a simplistic thing. But the purpose of zoos is to be visited, to be educated there. You have to use the zoo, usage is the big thing. Attendance figures may be part of the, well when I worked… Read More
And they never would vote against the zoo after that. Some of them, you know, you can’t crack all the nuts. I shouldn’t have said that. Some people you cannot educate, but you need to make that effort. And if it doesn’t work from you, those people are usually sensitive… Read More
What are the most important aspects of marketing?… Read More
Any advice- Yep, any advice for the neophyte zoo director about the importance of marketing zoos?… Read More
Well, I think number one, you, of course, you educate them. How do you educate them? I believe you get them to the zoo. Everybody likes some special treatment. I think I already told you on Friday, we did a zoo walk. And I would suggest anytime we had a… Read More
Now, they’re brought about by lobbying agencies, and all that, but we can lobby. And we need to lobby for better protection, for fewer problems in the environment. And I think that’s paramount for the zoos to do, because they get the bulk of the people coming through them more… Read More
What’s the most efficient way to deal with elected officials and municipal bureaucrats in order to develop and manage a zoo today?… Read More
And I’d like, I’m gonna see that some other zoos get to look at it.” “Sure, I’ll get it in the mail to you.” Well, okay, I dug a pit and now I’m trapped in it. I got my friend in the physics department at TCU to give me a… Read More
I think number one, he has to have empathy for life, for live animals. He has to be sensitive, by that I mean he needs to be sensitive to what their needs are. He needs to know about those needs, and he needs to respond to those needs in a… Read More
What would be the top, the three top qualities you think a curator should have today?… Read More
You know, that’s what they use in the prisons to do away with fellow human beings and it works fine.” He said, “That’s fascinating. Read More
Does the Denver Zoo know about that?” I said, “I don’t know.” He said, “Can you send me the schematics of that device?… Read More
If you feed them dead, how do you kill them?… Read More