And we put stands out in various areas and we made sure to keep them away from where we had the Eld’s deer in the Pere David’s deer. So nobody would make a mistake and shoot the, the animals that were out in large paddocks. ’cause we had thirty acre… Read More
If we’d taken out as many does as we’d taken out bucks, it would’ve been a different situation. But we didn’t, so the males can breed with lots of females, but each female gives birth to one or two or three, sometimes three fawns. So what happened is that the… Read More
So I met with, what was his name?… Read More
Jack, I forget his name, but he was the commissioner. And we talked about it and he said, you know what, what you can do is he said, you can have a controlled drives. He says, you have to get a bunch of people together. And he says, you have… Read More
And so I said, Dr. Reed, let me just check with Virginia Game Commission. I said, because they’re the ones that manage whitetailed deer. And let me ask them what we can do to take care of the problem. Because if we have a hunt, it could backfire on us. Read More
Well, we had a major issue at the National Zoo with that deer hunt. I dunno if you remember that. But when Dr. Reed acquired the Remount station in front Royal Virginia, the Ayleshire Quartermaster Remount station, it was a 4,000 acre mule and horse breeding farm for the cavalry. Read More
And they liked to sneak on on the weekends and that sort of thing. But anyway, the orders were no hunting on the property. And what happened is, over a period of years, the deer population increased. And then Dr. Reed wanted to know why he had to buy hay… Read More
And how did you approach that?… Read More
You know, you, there is an issue with captivity, it does change animals, but there are positives in keeping animals to captivity also. So there they’re trade-offs. Read More
Now when you were, you spoke about the different groups when you were at the National Zoo, did you have to interact or ever deal with, or be part of decision-making on how to deal with animal rights or people who were opposed to what the National Zoo was doing?… Read More
Yeah. Do you think that zoos have been mostly successful in that concept of the education of the public?… Read More
I think people that are exposed to animals in zoos generally relax, react in two ways. There are those who reject captivity on principle and who just don’t feel good looking at animals in cages. Those are often the animal rights people. That’s kind of the far right. And then… Read More
So did that answer the question?… Read More
They’re not there for entertainment alone, you know?… Read More
I mean, the, the big problem is, is educating visitors without making, making them feel that they’re in school. You know, you wanna, you have to be kind of subliminal and how you get messages across to them. So real simple signs, announcements and that sort of thing. I mean,… Read More
Well, it all, it’s all education, isn’t it?… Read More
How do you think zoo professional tries to balance the welfare needs with what the visitors have?… Read More
Expectations or sometimes even the limitations of the exhibit?… Read More
You know, that sort of thing. So those little tricks based on knowledge, you could put rags in there from the animal’s cage. And just the scent would be, because it’s basically a scent scent that they’re using to identify one another with, that was another example of that sort… Read More
You know, when you throw a a, a new baboon into the cage, he’s gonna have to pass muster with everyone else, right?… Read More