And, and of course there was a real big stigma about anybody that worked with a ranch because of an organization called Game Coin. I dunno if you remember them. And they would import hoofstock, which is how San Antonio got their big hoofstock collection with the idea that the… Read More
And it’s still an issue today, unfortunately. Well, bringing this up, so the next que how should zoos be dealing with the deaths of animals, especially charismatic animals with their staffs and the public Honesty is your answer. Stop trying to hide things. Animals in the wild pass away, animals… Read More
What’s that gonna do for us?… Read More
Well, the, you know, it, it was nice, but they kind of looked at us and said, okay, but you want us to take all the males?… Read More
Because we were afraid of the game ranches that were the hunt ranches, you know?… Read More
So we went around and looked at ranches that supposedly weren’t, that said, you’ve got the space, can you take surplus?… Read More
Stop reproduction? Well, these animals aren’t meant to stop reproduction. That’s not how they evolved. And, and I think that is a, a hazard to them physiologically. And it’s a hazard to that program in order to maintain that species. That’s why. And, and this will get off in a… Read More
And I remember a time when, oh, George Felton, it was the Baton Rouge Zoo and Bill Conway and, oh, I forgot the gentleman’s name now, Louis Desabato and a got, we did a tour of ranches in Texas and we said, you know, how can we cooperate with them?… Read More
And that’s what our age pyramid is, to keep that population sustainable. Read More
But when you don’t remove that surplus and now you’re crowded for space, what’s your alternative?… Read More
And otherwise it, it’s kind of like a no-no. And, and I’ll tell you, in Miami, when I first started, Miami Zoo had a big hoofstock collection. And I would look at what studbooks were available, or I’d go to, at that time it was called isis, the Species Inventory… Read More
And all of a sudden after that, you, you would try to turn a female around to get her reproductive again, and it just wouldn’t happen. And so that whole topic of, of euthanasia, although it seemed to quiet it down to me, it’s still a real issue because it… Read More
I can tell you in the wild that there are a number of biologists and, and field managers that still believe in euthanasia because they know that the environment has a caring capacity. And if you go beyond it, you destroy the environment. And so you’ve gotta manage it to… Read More
But it brings up a very touching subject called euthanasia and how do you manage populations?… Read More
Well, I’ll tell you one that’s been a long term debate and, and I don’t hear much about it right now ’cause I think people have given up and you know, when you talk about small population management, let’s go back to a comment I made. To me, our goal… Read More
What with ethical debates, what ethical debates are most active, do you think, within the profession today?… Read More
How do you see the role of modern zoos evolving in this global calculation?… Read More
You know, that’s interesting. Julie Seale, who is Dr. Seal’s no longer with us, began a group that we originally called the Captive Management Specialist Group. And then they changed it and now it’s the Conservation Planning Specialist group. And I think what’s, and the idea was to connect zoos… Read More
We need to get back to what Julie had envisioned, I think, and how to make that connection and have the conservationists in the field see value in, in what we do. And so I would love to see that begin to come back into focus again in terms of… Read More
So I, I love that program and think that it, it’s done a lot. In fact, I’m now on the conservation committee for the Zoological Association of America and we just gave out grants. We had two, we had 230 grant applications, which I think is more than a ZA… Read More