We were part of a number of institutions that were putting money into it so that it was a cooperative effort. But certainly, there’s a plethora of small conservation needs out there. Partula snail. You can do an unbelievable conservation project with Partula snails, they don’t take up a lot… Read More
But what can a smaller or medium size municipal zoo do today to be involved in wildlife conservation nationally or internationally?… Read More
Well obviously, it’s gonna depend on the institution and the financial resources they have to participate. My first suggestion is that they co-op with another institution or a group of institutions to be part of a cooperative conservation effort. That way everybody kicks in a small amount but it still… Read More
You can hire a good fundraiser. You can hire a good marketing person. We’ve talked about conservation and big zoos have the wherewithal finances if they want to use it. Read More
What skillset does the zoo director need today as compared to when you started?… Read More
Get back to the old thing, it used to be animal person would run these Park an Recreation Department zoos and that’s all skill set you needed. But now we’re in a world where in order for the institution survive, you gotta start looking at all the business sides of… Read More
As long as you can maintain that demarcation, I think it’s fine if the director is business oriented but if you don’t, then it can be a problem. Read More
It’s better to have in your opinion, an animal person at the leadership position with a business person under them or a business person in the leadership position and animal person underneath them?… Read More
Good question. I’m not real sure but I probably would tend to support the animal person with the business person below them. Ultimately, the problems that might occur will be related to the animal collection. Somebody has to speak on behalf of the animal collection. And it’s usually, in my… Read More
If they don’t rely on the professional animal staff who have the knowledge, which is their core product. If they don’t rely on them and don’t support them and if they think that they know more about it than they do, that will lead to disaster. I’ve watched an institution… Read More
I think it depends on the institution, how well it works and how well it doesn’t work. If the depth of the staff is good and they’re respected, then I think that those situations will be fine. I think there will be some problems with institutions who the director, who… Read More
So, it was an all animal thing. When it started to change and they started to privatize, then those talents changed to individuals that had the talents to meet the challenges. Ie, marketing, fundraising experience. Financial experience. We have seen them come and we’ve seen them go. We’ve even seen… Read More
I think that the change in the qualifications of people that are running zoos is probably inevitable. Again, you go back to the time when majority of zoos were managed by municipal park departments, the director of these institutions were animal people. I can’t imagine any of them not have… Read More
Pretty much the norm of the day. There are pros and cons in today’s trend. Read More
If there is one, what’s your opinion?… Read More
All that time that I spent worrying about the zoo, I wish I’d had taken that time and spent it on family. Probably as you get older, I think we’ve all looked back and probably think, gosh darn it, probably should have spent more time doing that. I was very… Read More
If there’s a storm, is everything gonna be okay tomorrow?… Read More
And the weather’s bad, you worry about is the collection being cared for?… Read More
And in Oklahoma, there’s big storms. Read More
It becomes a way of life and you forget that you’ve got other things in your life than the job. And as you know, being a zoo curator, being a zoo director, 24-7, 365 days a week. Read More