You know, no matter where you live in the world. So I think, I think zoos do, the United States zoos do have that opportunity. And, and I would recommend pursuing it and helping out those zoos, those those countries that really want to build, build a collection. Read More
What do you believe can or should the US zoos or aquariums do to help upgrade developing countries with their zoos?… Read More
You know, I think we have such great resources here in the United States. We have such great knowledge that I think it’d be very, very easy, excuse me, to, to share that, that knowledge and those resources, I mean, quite often all they need is just knowledge and drive. Read More
And especially some of them discover it’s a physically taxing profession when you’re a zookeeper and you have strange hours and you know, strange work weeks and things like that and expectations. So, but you know, I’m delighted that I got into it all those many, many years ago when… Read More
Because I think somebody once told me that there were more astronauts than zoo directors in the United States. So it’s a rare gig to land a zoo directors. And I was kind of the odd duck out when I landed and one at an early age in my twenties. Read More
But one of my first things I ask them is, are you interested in money?… Read More
Okay. And I’m going, did you want my job being a zoo director?… Read More
Zoom world is not a profitable, profitable place to work. Read More
Okay. Would you recommend the zoo and aquarium field to a young person with sincere interest in wildlife conservation today?… Read More
Absolutely. I would like to visit with that young person a little bit more, though, to make certain that their focus, that it would be a satisfying career or satisfying opportunity for them. Some folks interested in fish and wildlife careers, maybe wanna more, do more field work, wanna do… Read More
And why would you?… Read More
And, you know, he considered me one of his heroes, but he was one of my heroes, Mr. Smith, my heroes in peace, you know, and a negative kind of thing is the guy who was the zoo director before me in Indiana, I kind of learned what not to… Read More
Well, Earl Wells, may he rest in peace was one of my mentors. He also helped lend me the gig in, in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was a wonderful mentor. You know, he was probably the most impactful mentor that I had. My biology teacher in high school, Mr. Smith, may… Read More
Oh, Who were your Mentors?… Read More
And, and he, he was right. You know, be really, really smart about it. But, you know, but I think the biggest was that as the zoo guy, the zoo director, I was the keeper of the dream. Now you’ve had, in, in your career, you’ve had mentors. Read More
What lessons did you take away from some of them?… Read More
What are we trying to do today and what do we wanna do tomorrow?… Read More
I’m the, because the zoo was founded by a very wonderful person, aren’t it Folsom, who, who had a dream of creating a wonderful place to engage children in the natural world. And then I became a successor of that dream in 1986, and it was my responsibility to carry… Read More
What is the dream for the children’s zoo into the future?… Read More
Career, years and years and years ago, I think it was at the Children’s Zoo Symposium in Philadelphia, probably 30, 35 years ago when somebody said, an interpreter said, as the zoo director, you’re the keeper of the dream. I went, the keeper of the dream keeper, the dream for… Read More