You know, bamboo grows well in Washington, DC and so once a week you’d go out with the truck and load up and bring back the bamboo. So I filled in a couple of times with the pandas. You’d cook rice, get carrots and apples and bamboo on a regular… Read More
And the big deal was how do you breed pandas?… Read More
And they followed the instructions that they got from the Chinese. At the time when the pandas came, a Chinese delegation came with them. But I think even the Chinese were learning about pandas. This was really just a diplomatic exchange. The science of pandas wasn’t really known either by… Read More
And then we’ll talk about some of the other issues just that revolved around that unique species. Okay, the pandas arrived, I wanna say 1972 or 1973. President Nixon went to China, and opened up China. And presidential animals were always part of the presidential gifts. I mean, we had… Read More
I had a dorcas gazelle that was given to Eisenhower and, I think, was one of the elephants?… Read More
Well, we got an elephant when I was there. But so the giant pandas came to the National Zoo and there was, pandas were, I mean, there hadn’t been pandas since St. Louis’s last panda died in the 40s. So it was a big deal. I know Milwaukee tried to,… Read More
And it was, so, I think, so I spent more time working with pandas than anything else. Elephants, elephants were a concern. I remember my first construction project was redoing one with the Elephant House and we ended up, that one just was basic. Just you could, we had Asian… Read More
I couldn’t read a blueprint to save my life. I had no idea what was going on. I went to the library and got a book on blueprints, (blows raspberry) So I’ve always had difficulty with doing a construction. Now you talked about the pandas, so let’s talk about the… Read More
Can you give me a general history quickly about how the pandas came there and then what your responsibility was when you got the job that involved the pandas?… Read More
Well, I don’t know what kind of issues the, I mean, since the pandas were part of my area, I mean, I just remember pandas were front and center. Read More
How are you gonna breed pandas?… Read More
I mean, it was just trying to breed, are you gonna breed pandas?… Read More
of these people?… Read More
Well, and I would go to meetings. One interaction I remember with Ted Reed is we had a group called Zoo East. It was Philadelphia, Baltimore, National, and New York were starting cooperative programs. And they were the most boring meetings in the world and, you know, all the guys… Read More
(Elizabeth laughing) When you first started and as you progressed at the National Zoo to the management, what kind of issues was the National Zoo facing?… Read More
No, the opportunity came up and I thought, “Well, I’d like to try this. Yeah, I mean, there’s so many people who go to work in zoos who wanna work with the animals. ’cause they don’t wanna work with people. I actually liked working with people, so I thought management… Read More
Well, I supervised the keepers, did schedules, learned about, you know, responsible for the animals and the collection, breeding plans, that sort of thing. Getting new animals in, sending animals out. Did you have more relationship and interaction with Bill Xanten or- Oh yeah. Read More
What were your new responsibilities?… Read More
Same, well, taking care of, I had a wider variety of animals there, you know, and I would help out when they did, you know, you would help the vet or if we would take x-rays or whatever. All the animals went through quarantine. I do remember Mitch built a… Read More
In the back of your mind, were you thinking, I want to move forward and higher at the National Zoo?… Read More