Well, the style is all different, but mostly it’s the lead from the top and, I mean, yeah, I mean, most of my communications have been with my immediate supervisors and not with the zoo director. Chuck was that way. Gil was that way. Ted was that way. Robinson was… Read More
What was the most important piece of the advice you received that had stayed with you throughout your career?… Read More
It’s changed to profession now, not job. But it’s changed to a profession where they don’t make enough money to support themselves. So most, so that’s, at least it hasn’t kept up, so a lot a lot of them love doing it for… A friend of my nephew’s went to… Read More
So I don’t know how, yes, zoos should be thinking of it. I think most zoos are doing that. You end up that most zookeepers are now the second income in the family. And if it changes or, you know, we have zookeeper couples that are married, they can do… Read More
And, you know, and doing demonstrations. And I’m reading, I’m looking at the website and they’re going, well, you know, there’s a lot of tourism into Miami and if, you know, you had to hire your own translator to come with you if you needed a translator. And I said,… Read More
And I was asking him to go to Chicago?… Read More
When I was in the National Zoo, keepers would kill to take an animal to the Baltimore Zoo, would spend the day. So it depends on your keeper staff and what they’re willing to do. Read More
Do you think keepers think of their, it is a job or a profession?… Read More
You go, oh, and keepers get to vet to other keepers and that’s very helpful. (chuckles) Did you initiate travel programs for your keepers?… Read More
Well, if we had enough people, I would send people down. The keeper group changed a lot when I was there. I mean, I remember I had, we were sending an animal down to Brookfield or Lincoln Park and I went to the senior keeper in small mammals and go,… Read More
And I will tell you that a local university has started a marine biology program just ’cause there’s enough kids who wanna study marine biology in Wisconsin. (chuckles) But there are other people who, I mean, they’re just so dedicated. We have a, I think, I don’t know whether he’s… Read More
But it helps to have mentors for them, doesn’t it, to keep that interest?… Read More
Oh, I would think so. But again, they have to be, you know, you can mentor somebody, but unless you know, I mean, to me mentorship is you make sure if there’s something that they’re interested in, that you can let them know about, if you can send them to… Read More
You wouldn’t know either, I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s, from what I’ve heard, it’s not as cooperative as it used to be. And it tends to be, well, no, this is, and in, yeah. So it’s a work in progress. I think that the Contraception Committee, which… Read More
Knowing what you know today, would you have entered the field when you did and would you enter it today, why?… Read More
Boy, that’s hard to say. Probably, you know, I would enter it. Again, it’s, I don’t know. I mean, I had almost no information about working in a zoo when I started in the zoo and I’m not sure that I would’ve had, I can’t tell you how many people… Read More
Is the national organization leading the local zoo or should the local zoo have more to say about what they want to do within their zoo population?… Read More
We need to move them out.” “No, no, there’s no place for them to go.” I mean, until communication is better, zoos will exist within their zoo population, but it’s, I think it depends on the SSP coordinator and how, and I don’t even, isn’t it all run from Lincoln… Read More
I think it depends on the zoo. I mean, the problem with the recommendations is that they change recommendations mid recommendation. I mean, we had a recommendation to breed tigers and so we bred tigers and we had babies and they went, “Oh no, we changed the recommendation.” And I… Read More
I mean, I remember going to San Diego and they had, was it addra gazelles?… Read More