Mm, not long. It did have, right at the start, the idea was to build representation of all seven continents. Thank goodness that has not happened. It’s not, it’s not the problem, of course, well, it is the problem with capital money, but that’s not the real issue. At the… Read More
And what do you think the shelf, what is your opinion of the shelf life of a master plan?… Read More
That’s what, that’s what, as we were saying earlier, that’s what’s so important about long-term relationships, building those long-term and keeping them, Does the zoo have a master plan?… Read More
So you can imagine as chair of that group, and we were funding something like $20 million a year into, in, into both UK conservation and into West African conservation. So I knew all the key characters. The, the then head of national parks for Uganda was one of my… Read More
The relationship between the department, which was then we are now under the Department of Cultural Resources, NA, natural and Cultural Resources, a lot of the environmental, particularly the sort of the water, water quality, air quality, that’s the thing, has gone into another, another division now. But they, that… Read More
And quite a number of wetlands specialist areas, particularly for rare plants. A number of others with small wetlands with Sal and North Carolina is the salamander, is the capital of the salamander world. Basically 40, 43 species, some of which are not found anywhere else. So lots of opportunity,… Read More
North in North Carolina? Yes. I think to build, to build the programs, the, the exhibits were in pretty good shape and pretty up to date, pretty well up to date in terms of, in terms of their design. Now that doesn’t mean to say that there weren’t some gaps… Read More
You didn’t think about having a, a home on the grounds That would’ve been impossible being state property?… Read More
Now, when you first came, what were your first priorities when you first came to the zoo?… Read More
There was, we don’t, there’s nobody living on grounds and certainly not, you know, in a permanent basis. Obviously we, there are times one has to have people on the grounds for in hospital situations or hand feeding, that sort of thing. And, and in emergencies nearly all the staff… Read More
Much the same. I think as, as I’ve just described, you, you know, we talked earlier about being sort of on the grounds every day and of course our, you know, as I said, a zoo was so big North Carolina that it was quite difficult to be on the… Read More
I hope. So. Read More
How do you think your staff would describe your management style?… Read More
But I don’t, I don’t believe at the end of the day that that’s good management and the way that you build up succession to yourself and that we are talking earlier about, you know, training younger staff, gun curators and so on, is you give those, you give them… Read More
Same or different?… Read More
No, same. I would say it’s, it’s, it’s sort of congenial and inclusive in the, I’m certainly not autocratic. There are times one has to make a decision that people don’t like as, as any, any, well, any director of any organization has to, but I strongly believed in passing… Read More
Can you describe your management style both at London Zoo and North Carolina?… Read More
So the shops, you know, all your retail needs to be obviously at, at both ends, mo mostly as they’re leaving. Read More
In North Carolina because of the size of the zoo, You have to have more of them simply because of the distances between exhibits, so things like restrooms, snack, you know, snack type food, places to sit many and particularly a larger zoo. It, that’s a bit of a challenge… Read More
What, what type of visitors amenities would you say are important and are they different?… Read More