And Ah Meng is a very famous orangutan. She’s movie star. I mean, she’s appeared. Everybody in Singapore knows who Ah Meng is. So the president of Singapore once came to meet Ah Meng and he said… Apart from Lee Kuan Yew who is our founding prime minister, Ah Meng… Read More
I mean, she’s like treated like gold. So she’s sitting there, her handler is sitting behind her. And we do this for years. It’s twice a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays on the tram treats, looking around. And then one day, Dr. Ong said, “I don’t wanna see Ah Meng today.” I… Read More
Why’d you think you could do it?… Read More
Singapore Zoo before you?… Read More
Oh, well, because I was pretty early on. I was a pretty pioneer. Actually, I didn’t know I could do it. But I’m the kind of person who if I… I don’t think anything is impossible. So I think if you put yourself, your mind to it, you can do… Read More
Why had no one tried to bring more people to the zoo- Singapore Zoo. Read More
Sorry, say that again?… Read More
And is that what you tried to do at Singapore?… Read More
Yeah, but it’s a tough thing. I mean, you’ve got to really have total control. Yes, we try to do it Night Safari, we tried to do it. And I’d say Night Safari is probably one of the best examples that one has in the zoo, yeah, because you totally… Read More
Why did you think you could get more people to the zoo and why hadn’t anybody done it before you?… Read More
Okay. Actually, it wasn’t judgment; it’s suspended disbelief. So suspended or suspension of disbelief is it’s a theme park. It’s a theme park thing. So let’s say you’re walking in a zoo and you’re walking through a forest and you turn the corner and there you have a group of… Read More
And you know you are not in Uganda. You know that you’re in the middle of New York City or wherever it is, but you are willing to suspend your disbelief because of the realism of the situation. And so the natural or the school of naturalism in zoo design,… Read More
Can you talk about creativity and you have?… Read More
You either have a template which they have, or you do it by bringing people together. Their template is an interesting one, which I’m now starting to understand, having visited Houston Zoo and seeing the template in action. And also, I went to see sharks in New York Aquarium, which… Read More
What did you mean by judgment had to be suspended and the imagination allowed free play?… Read More
And then obviously zoologists and horticulturists and stuff. So then put this group together and they’re kind of like gonna brainstorm and they brainstorm. Each of them in a group and then randomly would go and discuss and these different projects. And then basically get them to come up with… Read More
I mean, he’s got a opinion about everything, which is sometimes highly irritating, but it’s like he just comes out, they just come up with great little gems of ideas. And so we normally never changed anything totally, radically, but we added onto it. And now that I’ve kind of… Read More
Do you think you could have been as creative if you hadn’t worked in a zoo within a major tourist city?… Read More
I would think so. I would think so. I’ve had quite a lot of feedback. Some of them would say it was a bit too much. Is management by exception your phrasing or is that- No, it was given to me by a management consultant who I explained my style… Read More
No, I don’t, but I think it takes money to be creative or the way I work because I’m not a particularly creative person myself. What I’m very good at doing is facilitating creative people. And so what I would do is about twice a year, I would bring in… Read More