You know that, boy, that’s a strong message that stays with you. The animal extremists are good at that and they, they get that impression off. And we’ve not been able to counter it because, well, we’re too diverse. Ours isn’t the same. Our problem is this or our problem… Read More
Well, I, you know, I think the biggest concerns that that evolved as I matured into the profession was again, the perception of the public about what we are and what we do. And that impacted how we operate substantially in our decisions. And the only way to deal with… Read More
What issues caused you the most concern during your career?… Read More
I’m say ask what Issues caused you the most concern during your career and how do you see the future regarding those saying concerns?… Read More
And how do you see the future regarding those kind of concerns?… Read More
And so I think they’ve influenced zoos the most and how we look at exhibitry and where we spend our dollars. Can we educate them to say that’s not necessarily always the case. You can, it’ll be hard because they’ve been, they’ve evolved into that aspect of what their expectations… Read More
And the only way they have to judge that is what does your exhibit look like?… Read More
So are you taking good care of your animals?… Read More
Well, we, we did, we touched on it, visitor attitudes. They’ve been influenced by outside influencers. So they come in with certain expectations. They wanna see big naturalistic exhibits. They wanna say that we’re really concerned about welfare. Read More
What changes would you say you’ve seen during your years in, in the profession regarding visitor attitudes?… Read More
And it’s, you know, it can be done. Read More
But I think any zoo at any level now, you may not get involved with, you know, Sumatra Rhino or something like that. But that doesn’t mean, the good example is we just funded a grant to do conservation work for an alligator lizard that’s up in Ecuador. Tiny habitat,… Read More
Can we start something under professional care?… Read More
Well, you might be able to do that. And, and you know, Puerto Rican, crested toad, look how many toads have been spin back to Puerto Rico. So it doesn’t have to be a mega vertebrate or a huge species. It could be a small one and ma small or… Read More
You know, there’s not a commitment there, I don’t think. But there’s a lot of small zoos that have done that. Turtleback Zoo and a few others, they got involved with us with the PANGOLIN program. They still are involved. They don’t have pangolins, but they still commit and they… Read More
How can they be involved?… Read More
Well, I, I actually think in, in the last few years that I was there, there were a number of small zoos, medium and small zoos that were getting more into conservation work. Some of it was international, but a lot of it was what I call backyard conservation, where… Read More
How do you think a small or a medium-sized municipal zoo today could be involved in wildlife conservation, whether it’s local or national or international?… Read More
And we don’t have, we don’t have a lot of that. So I’d go back to o training techniques. There’s different kinds of zoos. Read More
Do you understand your responsibility in making sure the welfare of that animal is met pre, during and post?… Read More