Nothing else, just the zoo. People were driving from Charlotte to see the zoo. There’s no zoo in Charlotte. And we really took advantage of that, and that became part of marketing for us and was an integral part in the success. We started the Riverbanks Society. So we are… Read More
And it was really interesting. We had an initial kickoff, and we signed up, I think it was 200. We sold 200 memberships. And a while later, a few weeks later, we were sitting around. Read More
How can we get more people?… Read More
Came to Columbia, where’s the zoo?… Read More
Well, they don’t have a zoo. So in spite of all of the things that I said about John Mehrtens, the zoo that he built, in the broadest sense, was a really good zoo. And then we began to expand and improve, and an interesting thing happened. People who lived… Read More
I was, am, was a native of Columbia. I was born there, I grew up there, and except for four years of college, I lived my entire working life there. Columbia is a interesting place. It is sandwiched between some really progressive cities. Charleston is two hours southeast. Charlotte is… Read More
Well, maybe not so much Greenville, but certainly Charleston and Charlotte. And even you could go to Atlanta four hours away by car. People went to those places on the weekends. Nobody came to Columbia from Charleston. Nobody came to Columbia from Charlotte. But we went there ’cause they had… Read More
Took a long time to recover. You know, I’m not a Civil War buff. I think it was a horrible, horrible thing that happened in this country. But you would be amazed that as recently as 10 or 15 years ago, and maybe even today if I had to be… Read More
Sure, the concepts are relevant, especially if they are still fresh, if they’re still relevant today in managing animals. But to say to a young man, “You gotta learn,” or a young woman, “You have to learn all about Heini Hediger,” I don’t know that that’s that important. Read More
In the community, with your zoo, how did you get the community to embrace the zoo?… Read More
What were your strategies?… Read More
I think the concepts of zoo biology are relevant. I don’t know that Heini Hediger, as an individual to my, as a 26-year-old senior keeper, knowing that he…… Read More
What am I trying to say?… Read More
You know, as you were asking that question, what I started thinking about is that you could have asked that about any other profession, car manufacturers, chair manufac- I mean, things change, things evolve. I think for somebody of my generation, those individuals and things like the “International Zoo Yearbook,”… Read More
But in terms of a new curator or a new keeper doing his or her job, I don’t really think they’re that relevant. Let me challenge you just a bit on that. Get your opinion. Heini Hediger. Read More
And the precepts of zoo biology, you don’t think are relevant today?… Read More
On the hippo?… Read More
As you would imagine, the keepers who were taking care of it were thrilled (laughs) because they knew and I knew that it was only a matter of time before he seriously hurt or killed one of them. Some of the other keeper staff weren’t so happy about it, but… Read More
It has been said that many newer, younger zoo and aquarium professionals are computer curators, with little knowledge of the precepts of Heini Hediger, Lee Crandall, William Conway, or knowledge of the “International Zoo Yearbook.” How important for the future of zoos is it to keep this link with the… Read More
But we did. It was a commitment that we made. So I think, I’d like to think the keeper staff always knew that a curator or a veterinarian or myself was not gonna walk in one day and say, “Look, we gotta put that animal down. We’ve had it too… Read More