Interview 33485 – Caption Index: 104
And they asked me, I said, look, can you do a talk about what it takes to be a, a good curator?… Read More
And they asked me, I said, look, can you do a talk about what it takes to be a, a good curator?… Read More
I did a, I was asked to do a talk at, it was actually a keeper’s sort of three day workshop called Keeper Fest at a place called Jimmy’s Farm in Wildlife Park down in, in the south of England. Read More
And it was like, okay, right, okay, this is, this is right up my street. And so I basically, I came up with a list of, I think it was 16 key points. What it starts with is you have to have been a zookeeper. You, you, you ha you… Read More
Oh, you should go to the Highland Wildlife Park. It’s brilliant. You know, they’ve got tigers and polar bears and, you know, and huge enclosures. It looks fantastic. And so we were able to completely change the, the, the significance of the collection, both in the eyes of the, the… Read More
Now you’ve been in this position many times, what would you include in a training program for curators?… Read More
We got to the point when people are staying at small hotels, right?… Read More
We have a spare day, what do you reckon we do?… Read More
We made sure we had a, a fluffy news story every month and a serious news story every month. And this was during the worst financial recession since the Great Depression. So basically from 2008 when I started and when I left, we had more than doubled the attendance level… Read More
You go to, I mean, there seems to be a lot of zoos these days that have lost faith in their, in the, in what they do. And so they now have to have animatronic dinosaurs and Lego sculptures and various other non-animal aspects to their operation be that, as,… Read More
What do you think there is their strong point and how do they sell it?… Read More
Great zoo must compete with other cultural institutions. Read More
But then I’ve seen a lot of places where they’ve changed their names. They’ve gone from, we’re, we’re no longer a zoo, we’re a wildlife center. And then all of a sudden their visitor numbers go down because the public don’t know what they are anymore. And then they go… Read More
I said, and you’ve got knowledgeable people. You have, you, you, you do the interviews, you do the debates, you use examples you make, you’re not just arguing with them. You’re informing everybody on the outside who only sees their argument, only hears their argument because you’re not saying anything. Read More
And it was like, oh yeah. And we did a very long, it was, I think it was a good two or three hours debate on Radio four, major UK radio State National Radio station. And I’m proud to say that I think that won the argument. But what was… Read More
You know, the, the, the National Zoo. The most important collection, most high profile collection in the uk. We were the big target. ’cause if we could, they could take us down. Everybody else was easy. But during that period, every time they raised their head above the parapet, I… Read More
And I used about three examples like this. And you know, I said basically, you know, don’t paint us all with the same brush. Read More
Anyway, the BBC producer that was there came up to me, said, would you be interested in doing a debate with them live on BBC?… Read More
And, you know, ’cause there was lots of, of Belgians that lived in what was then Zaire. And under the new regime they came back, they came back with pets. And when the manga be trashed, the living room, they ended up at the zoo. Read More
Did you find out if that was one of those animals?… Read More
They could have ignored me. They didn’t. And so I stood up and I immediately said, right, I’m Douglas Richardson, I’m curator of mammals at London Zoo and all the cameras just immediately sit drowned. And, and I just caught them off guard. And I said, look, there was, there’s,… Read More