Interview 22877 – Caption Index: 516
That was the most important piece of advice?… Read More
That was the most important piece of advice?… Read More
Yeah, no, I can’t think of anything. Ah, yes I can. When I was in my museum studies program, working with many Smithsonian lawyers and they said, “The registrar’s job is to keep you out of jail. That’s how important they are.” And that stuck with me forever, yep. Read More
And have you made any observations about their style or their job responsibilities as you’ve seen it ebb and flow?… Read More
What was the most important piece of the advice you received that had stayed with you throughout your career?… Read More
Well, the style is all different, but mostly it’s the lead from the top and, I mean, yeah, I mean, most of my communications have been with my immediate supervisors and not with the zoo director. Chuck was that way. Gil was that way. Ted was that way. Robinson was… Read More
And, you know, and doing demonstrations. And I’m reading, I’m looking at the website and they’re going, well, you know, there’s a lot of tourism into Miami and if, you know, you had to hire your own translator to come with you if you needed a translator. And I said,… Read More
So I don’t know how, yes, zoos should be thinking of it. I think most zoos are doing that. You end up that most zookeepers are now the second income in the family. And if it changes or, you know, we have zookeeper couples that are married, they can do… Read More
It’s changed to profession now, not job. But it’s changed to a profession where they don’t make enough money to support themselves. So most, so that’s, at least it hasn’t kept up, so a lot a lot of them love doing it for… A friend of my nephew’s went to… Read More
Do you think keepers think of their, it is a job or a profession?… Read More
When I was in the National Zoo, keepers would kill to take an animal to the Baltimore Zoo, would spend the day. So it depends on your keeper staff and what they’re willing to do. Read More
And I was asking him to go to Chicago?… Read More
Well, if we had enough people, I would send people down. The keeper group changed a lot when I was there. I mean, I remember I had, we were sending an animal down to Brookfield or Lincoln Park and I went to the senior keeper in small mammals and go,… Read More
You go, oh, and keepers get to vet to other keepers and that’s very helpful. (chuckles) Did you initiate travel programs for your keepers?… Read More
And I will tell you that a local university has started a marine biology program just ’cause there’s enough kids who wanna study marine biology in Wisconsin. (chuckles) But there are other people who, I mean, they’re just so dedicated. We have a, I think, I don’t know whether he’s… Read More
Oh, I would think so. But again, they have to be, you know, you can mentor somebody, but unless you know, I mean, to me mentorship is you make sure if there’s something that they’re interested in, that you can let them know about, if you can send them to… Read More
But it helps to have mentors for them, doesn’t it, to keep that interest?… Read More
You wouldn’t know either, I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s, from what I’ve heard, it’s not as cooperative as it used to be. And it tends to be, well, no, this is, and in, yeah. So it’s a work in progress. I think that the Contraception Committee, which… Read More
Boy, that’s hard to say. Probably, you know, I would enter it. Again, it’s, I don’t know. I mean, I had almost no information about working in a zoo when I started in the zoo and I’m not sure that I would’ve had, I can’t tell you how many people… Read More
Knowing what you know today, would you have entered the field when you did and would you enter it today, why?… Read More
I think it depends on the zoo. I mean, the problem with the recommendations is that they change recommendations mid recommendation. I mean, we had a recommendation to breed tigers and so we bred tigers and we had babies and they went, “Oh no, we changed the recommendation.” And I… Read More