Interview 20028 – Caption Index: 291
How can a zoo improve their connection with kids and teenagers to heighten their zeal and awareness about the natural world?… Read More
How can a zoo improve their connection with kids and teenagers to heighten their zeal and awareness about the natural world?… Read More
Tough nut to crack. Teenagers are a different species. You know, over the years we had Explorer Scout troops at the zoo for teenagers and some other programs geared to teenagers. We took them on field trips, overnight trips to places. And while I think the kids loved it and… Read More
Do you have any advice for the neophyte zoo director about the importance of marketing zoos, and what do you think are the most important aspects of marketing?… Read More
Well, if you are a neophyte zoo director and you are not totally committed to marketing, you won’t last long. We were spending 10% of our budget on marketing, and at times I wished it was 30 or 40%. I don’t think you can spend enough money telling your story… Read More
That’s what they want to know. They don’t want to know about the carousel. They don’t want to know about anything, but you’re taking care of your animals. And that’s gotta be the center for, I think, of a lot of our marketing efforts, is animal care and animal welfare. Read More
What direction do you think zoo education should be going in as it relates to the basic tenets of conservation, education, and research?… Read More
I don’t know. You know, I employed a number of education curators over the years. And it always, I found it interesting. Somebody would leave, take another position in another zoo, and for the last two or three years, our education department had been going in this direction and doing… Read More
I don’t know what it is, but, you know, children love animals. Let’s face it, they love animals, and their parents like for them to be engaged with animals. And I just don’t think we’ve hit upon the way to satisfy those needs by young people and their parents. Read More
You know, “How is Jojo doing?” As opposed to, “Wasn’t there a story about a lion or something?” They connected with that. That name was a connection. I also have seen amazing things done with program animals, amazing things done, and now… And I’m not smart enough to figure that… Read More
I have had people tell me it was a highlight of their life. So that one-on-one, that touch is so important, but yet we fear it for a number of reasons. And again, I’m not smart enough to say what the answer is and how you accomplish both things at… Read More
No. (laughs) PETA, for example, has for years had very formal, very well-funded, very slick programs for school children. AZA has never had, and I’m saying nationwide programs. Very subtle, very subtle, but funded teaching children that animals are equal to us and have the same rights that we have… Read More
What do you think can be done to make the visitor connection programs more meaningful?… Read More
I went through this sort of evolution in my career. For the first 20 years of my 40-year career, I would not allow the house names of our animals to be published. So if we did a press release, we never referred to an animal by its house name. We… Read More
Is it a good idea to change it back?… Read More
Banning private participation. The main issue with private participation was always the quality of those private facilities, the ethical standards of those facilities. When you’ve got an organization, or let’s just say a business operating outside of the way we as accredited institutions operate, number one and number two, you… Read More
Is education doing any good, particularly in boosting the image of zoos among the public in the face of the anti-zoo groups?… Read More
No, it was a mistake. Read More
How can the situation be changed?… Read More
No, I don’t think so. I don’t think you can build anything, anything without outside or undue influence. In 2010, AZA zoos and private breeders were essentially banned from participating in species survival plans. Read More
Did that hurt or help zoos?… Read More