You must love people ’cause you’re a sociologist. I say, “No, love my wife, maybe my kids.” So it’s like but I respect animals now and a sociologist would respect people. I think it’s a subtle difference. And I think there are some people who love all animals. I think… Read More
You’ve said that being a zoo director, that even if you’re good, you don’t make a lot of money. Read More
Do you think it’s still true in all the markets?… Read More
What would you say is the differences you see it between loving animals and respecting them?… Read More
But it’s like asking a sociologist, do you love people?… Read More
Sure. So often journalists ask me, “So you must be a animal lover.” And I said, “No, I’m not an animal lover. I don’t love animals. Maybe I love my dog or my cat. Read More
Tiger gets out. Well, tiger gets out, had to shoot it in the Night Safari. So it’s written more of… Elephant turns around and steps one of his keepers in the chest shatters his sternum. I mean, there’s not much point hiding it. It’s just trying to manage the fallout. Read More
How do you handle somebody who’s like kind of hitting you at every side?… Read More
And that was actually nothing to do with any of those incidents I’ve spoken about, but we had a volunteer who was really causing a lot of problems, who actually went on to set up animal rights NGO in Singapore. But he felt that we were treating our chimpanzees quite… Read More
Why were you successful and what tips would you give a young zoo director?… Read More
I think I got thrown in at the deep end with the media from almost when I was first joined, I started being used as a voice, mainly because I was working with animals. And a lot of the times, the media wanted to look at new births and new… Read More
With my superiors and my subordinates. Well, I mean, no, I’m pretty much the same. I worked very closely with my subordinates, as I mentioned earlier. It’s more a question of hiring them, getting on with them, tasking them, and ensuring that they just get on and do it. And… Read More
If they’re really not doing the job well, then fire them. But we’re working with my superiors. I mean, it’s really just working with the board committees and stuff. Obviously, the roles that one are in with committees are you’re listening to what the committees are asking you to do. Read More
Anyways, they have gelada baboon. I think it’s called Baboon Village or baboon camping, but similar concepts. Large groups of baboons with actually ibis. So the baboons have a kind of a rocky wall, which they can climb up to a point but can’t because of overhang can’t get on… Read More
Did you have to take on different leadership roles for each group?… Read More
You can walk in up to a higher level, go up. It’s got butterflies, but it’s also got a bunch of mammals, a bunch of birds, anything that doesn’t particularly like to eat butterflies in there. So it’s got lemurs walking around, it’s got fruit bats, it’s got duikers. And… Read More
Aside from the Night Safari, can you tell me some exhibits you champion and the highs of lows of each one or two?… Read More
I think one one of the exhibits I really liked, which was from quite some time ago was a Primate Kingdom. Primate Kingdom is a complex of about five, I think five or six or seven islands, some of them very large, some of them fairly small, forested, vegetated for… Read More
I think so, yeah. If you ask my wife, it was probably about six months where I was really painful to be with. I just really was totally like… I can’t stand it. I really gotta go. And as soon as I left, it was great. I mean, I felt… Read More
Was this your most, I assume, but was this your most frustrating, challenging times as director leading the zoo?… Read More