At Riverbanks, we tried. We tried to fund some projects. We never fully funded a single project, or I should say we never fully funded a project on our own. But we sent money. We sent money to a number of projects. And I never felt good about that because… Read More
So our, we had a, and still do have a very good reptile department. And we funded some really good studies, and we participated in some really good studies. We funded a great project on eastern diamondback rattlesnakes. We did some work with gopher tortoises. I mean, we did a… Read More
Well, considering the financial resources that you’ve discussed available to many small or medium-sized zoos, what should be the focus of the collection?… Read More
And, you know, a lot of the privatization efforts started. Zoos started following the model of the Wildlife Conservation Society, a large society in San Diego, and shifted from public management to private nonprofit management. That changed skillsets for zoo directors incredibly, and, you know, we became, although I did… Read More
Can you tell me what can a small or a medium-sized municipal zoo do today to be involved in wildlife conservation nationally or internationally?… Read More
Well, conservation is an expensive sport. Many years ago, we used to brag. We being Riverbanks used to brag to ourselves and to our colleagues that, you know, we donated a thousand dollars to painted dog conservation in Botswana. Now they sneeze at a thousand dollars. It’s expensive. You have… Read More
Well, talking about that, what skillset does a zoo director need today as compared to when you started?… Read More
Phew. Well, when I started, and let’s, so I started in ’73. Let’s go back maybe 10 years before I started. So 10 years before I started through about five or six or so years after I started, 90% of the zoo directors only knew how to do, were only… Read More
I hired the best people I could given the restraints that I had, which were salary. But I hired the very best people I could, and I let them do their job. I also kept my board, which we called a commission. I was a good communicator, and by that,… Read More
And while I’m being criticizing myself, I have a very short attention span. And so I have staff meetings and they’re all sitting around the table and they’re giving reports, and then there’s silence. And I look and they’re all looking at me. And somebody will say, “You know, we’re… Read More
If I was a baseball player in the Hall of Fame, I could tell you what my statistics were. I can’t do that. It’s just, it’s a… You’re a work in progress, you know, and you just, every day you come to work, you try to be a little bit… Read More
You can do it first thing in the morning. You can do it after lunch, which is when I normally do it. You can do it at the end of the day. But do it. Make sure the staff sees you. Speak, it gives you an opportunity to interact with… Read More
What do you think made you a good zoo director?… Read More
Hmm, I don’t know. I have a very inquisitive mind. I read a lot. I observe, I traveled all over the world. Every time I went somewhere, especially to another zoo, I tried to find as many things as I could to bring back home and implement at Riverbanks. The… Read More
What zoo director goes on rounds?… Read More
I did it every day till the day I retired. The day I retired, I went on rounds. And for me, unlike our, some of our German colleagues who when they go on rounds, they go on rounds. They go on all the backups. I went on the public side. Read More
I said, “Come with me. Let me show you what I see.” And I would say, “Okay, this, this, this.” “Well, how did you see that?” And I guess it’s this innate thing that I had and others have. But when I left that last day, I went on rounds,… Read More
And the first one is, how important do you think it is for zoo directors to make rounds of their zoo, and did you do that?… Read More
I have a friend named Mike Zulat, who used to make fun of me because he would call for whatever reason to talk, and I would say, “Look, I gotta go on rounds.” He thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard in his life. Read More
Let’s build a botanical garden. So we hired one of the country’s preeminent botanical garden firms out of Pittsburgh, and they designed a master plan for the garden, the initial phase. And I went back to the county and I said, “Okay, I’m ready. I need six million bucks.” It… Read More