Interview 17445 – Caption Index: 46
That comes into the question of why is education so important in zoos?… Read More
That comes into the question of why is education so important in zoos?… Read More
No, I started the elephant rides. I started the elephant rides in, I forget what year now but I’ve seen them at various places. What a nice experience for kids, to ride on an elephant. I would love to have ridden on an elephant when I was a seven-year-old or… Read More
When you started at the Bronx, weren’t there elephant rides?… Read More
And I hope they will keep doing shows like you see today. I’m not looking for lion and tiger acts, or anything like that. But whatever you can do that will make people more aware of what amazing animals we have here, all around us. Read More
I believe they are. I certainly support them. I think, the extreme is the orcas. That’s the big one. And Sea World and all the marine parks that have had orcas over the years. I don’t think one person in 100 knew what an orca was prior to marine parks… Read More
Are animal shows still viable today to teach a message?… Read More
Do animal shows, like bird shows in flight, do they get their message across to visitors about a group of animals or conservation?… Read More
Close the Bronx Zoo.” They wanted us close everything down and move everything out. So, you know as long as we went with them, when they were leading the way, it was fine but once we were off the track, then we had problems. You kind of just touched on… Read More
Now, what’s next?… Read More
That was wrong. So we had a wonderful cooperation between us and this animal rights group. They said, “Oh you have to take all the animals up to the Bronx.” We said we would. Well after we talked about closing that zoo, then they said, “Okay, well, we’ve done that. Read More
I think that’s one of the big ones, is going out to work with, try and work with these animal rights groups. We did it in New York. There was an animal rights group in Brooklyn. They wanted the Brooklyn Zoo closed. We didn’t disagree with them. It was a… Read More
What would you say, and you kind of maybe touched on it but what are the largest problem, professional problems that face U.S. zoos today and what might be done to correct the problem?… Read More
And to me, it’s unfortunate that zoo directors are changing now. A lot of zoos are hiring people with varied backgrounds, whether it’s PR or development, or just a general business background, because they don’t have the background to fight as the leader of an organization with animal rights groups… Read More
And I think that, if you don’t have good knowledge of what you’re doing and be convinced that you’re doing the best for the animals, then how’re you gonna respond to these animal rights people that are there to find fault with whatever it is you’re doing?… Read More
I think the biggest thing today is that we have a lot of animal rights groups that are watching what we do, which isn’t bad, not bad at all. So we have to know what we’re doing and we have to know what we’re doing is the right thing to… Read More
Same questions, based on your experience, what skillset qualities, does a zoo director need today as compared to the zoo director when you started?… Read More
Well today, you must keep up with what’s going on electronically. You must be aware of how to use what is available to you through computers. That’s not to say that that’s the way to spend your time but you must be aware of it and be prepared to use… Read More
Two questions: What skillset qualities does a curator or a general curator need today, as compared to when you started?… Read More
We were always gonna be the Zoological Park or the Bronx Zoo. We were never gonna be anything but. But it worked. You’ve worked with a unique director and you’ve been a curator and a general curator. Read More
No, it didn’t at all change how the zoo ran. Most of us, really were not too happy about the change. We were old school, or whatever you want to call it, stick-in-the-mud, I don’t know. But it was for fundraising. We had developed a development department to raise money… Read More