Interview 22877 – Caption Index: 134
So we got a baby elephant from, now was it Sri Lanka?… Read More
So we got a baby elephant from, now was it Sri Lanka?… Read More
I think it was Sri Lanka. And that was really difficult because the baby, she didn’t survive. She had some sort of parasite. And, I mean, it caused an international incident, I mean, Richard Montali was the pathologist at the zoo at the time. And, you know, he did the… Read More
It was part of my job. I mean, you can only do what you can do. So, you know, I didn’t. Read More
Did this responsibility weigh heavy on you or just part of your job?… Read More
Did this experience or maybe any others that, when you were at the National Zoo, change your notion about what a zoo should be like or how things might start to be changed or things that now you’re thinking of, ’cause you’re gaining a lot of experience?… Read More
And then the baby didn’t live. I mean, none of Ling’s babies lived. Turned out that she had, I think Mitch decided that she had some sort of infection, vaginal infection. And so the babies died soon after birth because of the infection. She was a great mother holding the… Read More
Oh, no, we were, oh no, when they thought Ling was pregnant, we had a panda watch, it was, we had volunteers who, you know, there were cameras set up, keepers. So we had 24-hour watch. And when the first baby panda was born, I don’t remember whether they did… Read More
I’d forgotten that. Yeah, Ted must’ve retired. And so I, and I slept through the whole thing and then they said, “Well, you know, you were on the Nightly News last night.” (chuckles) I didn’t. Read More
Well, I’m trying to, I remember when the first baby panda was born and died. Maybe the sec, I don’t remember the second. I mean, I could’ve been. Read More
So you saw the first panda baby born or you heard it or?… Read More
Oh, everybody was there. You know, if you were gonna be putting the pandas together, all the researchers were there. The general curator was there. I don’t think Dr. Reed came down, you know, at that time. But, yeah, no, it was a production. And lots of meetings. Lots of… Read More
When you saw the second panda baby born, were you still working at the zoo?… Read More
There was a lot of controversy with the pandas and reproduction. Read More
I mean, that was the worst animal fight I’ve ever seen, was when we’d introduced them and we had terrible time separating the pandas, finally did, And I think Ling had scars, I mean, had bite marks all over her body when they finally got together and Chia-Chia got sent… Read More
So you would have to commiserate with Devra Kleiman or other people before you did things, ’cause everybody had to know?… Read More
I mean, one of my keepers that was off that weekend, and, you know, Ling-Ling was asleep at the bottom of the exhibit and he was going to pick up the bamboo and he said, oh, you know, she’s asleep. And so he just decided he’d go in and reach… Read More
Have they bred?… Read More
It was a nightmare. When Ed Gould started, he said, “Well, you know, if you’re gonna breed animals, they should be together more than, you know, a couple of days a year. Get them used to each other.” So they did that, and we started doing that. And finally when… Read More
I mean, female would start bleeding and the male might be whatever, but they did, you know, no one knew how to do it. Read More
Do we not put them together and, you know, are they breeding?… Read More