I mean, you, you, you just can’t clone the, the same zoo director every time. But, but he or she has to build into, you know, their legacy. A continuity. I see it all the time with the new, the new person comes in and, and, and it’s amazing how… Read More
Why do you think more zoos don’t have sister zoo relationships?… Read More
’cause they don’t know what that means. Sometimes some sister zoos, the, the zoos aren’t equal. Usually the, the, the, the rich zoo is in the United States and the sister zoo is in some developing country, and then they expect you to, you know, maybe fund the whole zoo. Read More
We bring architects in that are zoo architects that know what they’re doing. Not architects that just build these monuments to themselves, you know, with, with no source of budget. So the planning process is much more strategic, much more comprehensive. And it includes the animal care staff. It makes… Read More
It has to be an engaging exhibit. If you can do all three of those things, you’ve got a pretty good habitat. We had talked about national parks and the goods and the bads and why they were or were not working. Read More
Have you seen this evolution of how zoo exhibits are approached?… Read More
What has been, in your opinion, the evolution of zoo exhibits?… Read More
Well, definitely there’s more planning involved and there’s more people involved in the planning. It used to be the, it used to be the curator said, oh, I like that. That’s my favorite animal. Let’s just put, I don’t care what the public thinks that, you know, I like prairie… Read More
’cause it had to look good on day one. I said, well then we should have brought more vines in on day one. But, Well, but you’ve seen these different exhibits. You’ve been, you know, intimately involved. Read More
I said, why, why, why did we put the rock bar?… Read More
They don’t have the right combination of vegetation. There’s so many things wrong with, with habitats. Don’t get me started. I go to a habitat. I say, oh, if you just did this and this, you know, or you put the keeper or you rotate animals. Yeah. You know, don’t… Read More
So within three years you couldn’t even see the rock work, the vegetation covered. Read More
Petersburg Zoo, that enclosures were so small, but the keepers took such good care of those animals that they were part of the animal’s life that, that, that, that helped. But if the highlight of the animal’s day is to see their keeper and be fed, then you’re doing something… Read More
How do you measure the smile on a kid’s face?… Read More
I don’t, we can’t quantify that. But that if that smile leads to something like it did for me or some other children, then, then it’s not anecdotal, but, but it’s also not something you can easily measure. So the wow factor is the animals are active to some degree,… Read More
Well, being a chair of the exhibits award committee and a CA for many years, we had to, we got all the applications in and we, we looked at exhibit design and there we had a lot of different criteria for what makes a good exhibit. But in the end… Read More
How did you try and achieve what I would call a wow impact in exhibit design?… Read More
And, and, but I wish, I wish I could do that. I wish we could do that for every person in this country. The country would be a lot better off, but that’s not gonna happen. But you’ve been involved in trying to put together exhibits and exhibit design in… Read More
I’ve seen people I’ve taken to Africa. The husband goes, well, my wife wanted to go. I didn’t really wanna go on this trip. And afterwards, he’s like a kid in a camp. He’s just, he’s, he just, he, he’s thanking me. This was the greatest trip I’ve ever been… Read More
It’s a great idea. Long term. If you have too many people that go over to Africa and they’re all over the place, you’re gonna destroy the, everything you’re trying to save. So you’re gonna limit the amount of tourism. But, but, but I lead tours all the time. I’ve… Read More