So those things are not gonna go away. I think that zoos have to just continue doing what they have been doing and maybe try to reach out. And you know, it’s difficult even doing that when it’s considered Poli Pol Pol politicization to talk about conservation. Read More
So how do you, how do you see the role of the modern zoo evolving in a global conservation effort?… Read More
I mean, the first week that I was there, I had to spend the week at the zoo. And then on Friday I went into Front Royal and then I spent the weekend with my family in Front Royal. And then I, Sunday night, I drove back to the zoo… Read More
I think that when we were, when we started out, most of the initiatives were about building facilities and stocking facilities at the center. And so it was really about establishing collections and getting things going. And that’s what we spent the first years doing. But after the Endangered Species… Read More
And it was a little bit stressful on the family because I was gone most of the time. And then on the weekends when I went to Front Royal, people wanted to see me and interact. And so they were over at the house all the time. So the family… Read More
What would you say are the research or conservation projects that you, when you were there, were most excited about?… Read More
And have they continued?… Read More
So you had, you wanted the job as director?… Read More
Yeah. I decided when Challinor said you should try, I thought, well, maybe these guys do want me for the job and maybe I can get the job. And when you had the job as acting director, you were in charge of Smithsonian, you were in charge of the zoo… Read More
So that was an animal welfare issue that had far reaching consequences. Read More
And then he popped a question, asked me if I’d do it. And I said, yeah, I’ll, I’ll try. And so I went down there for about a year and a half I think it was. And Challinor said, you should put your hat in the ring for this, you… Read More
And the other thing is that Mike Robinson was a very good competitor. Mike was a very eloquent speaker and he had a long history with the Smithsonian Institution. And he was kind of at that age where if he was going to advance and go up, this was, was… Read More
But that took care of the problem. So we were seen in a more favorable light by our detractors after that happened. But when I think that that particular incident gave Secretary Ripley the ammunition and that he needed to get rid of Reed, and I told this to Mark… Read More
But that had all smoothed out. And we were happy work with Ted, but he had to leave. And so Ripley asked me to be the acting director of the zoo. Called me down to his laboratory. He used to have a little bird laboratory. He had one, one day… Read More
The secretary of the institution S. Dillon Ripley, he figured, this is Ted, this is on your plate, you know, this is, this is your bailiwick. You take care of the problem. So Ted, Ted Reed went down and Sam Hughes, who was the undersecretary at the Smithsonian, yours truly,… Read More
Who, who had grievances because they didn’t get the best deer stand that they wanted to have. And so it was, it was kind of chaos that hearing. But I knew I was beat when it was over. And the committee, well actually Sid Yates’ aid came up and he… Read More
But we had to periodically, they’ll, they will even go over an eight foot fence during the rutting period, you know?… Read More
And this was one welfare issue that came up. And so I had to go down to Washington DC with one of my staff members who was a keeper, and he had helped organize it. ’cause he was a wildlife management major from Virginia Tech, but he also chewed tobacco. Read More
And they were incognito. We didn’t know, really know who they were. And we took ’em around. And then Mrs. Free, who was the leader of this group, asked the pr, our PR guy said, you hunt these things. And he says, well, we have hunted them in the past,… Read More
And they’d go out the fence and then we’d put the fence back up. And, and we did, we did that a number of times, but it didn’t make the problem go away because it was a semi-permeable, permeable membrane. The fence was so that we could get back in. Read More