Oh, absolutely. Because when you first start at a zoo and you’re a zoo veterinarian, you’re not mindful of all the things it takes to actually run a zoo. We think the thing about being a zoo veterinarian, or any veterinarian for that matter in any facility, is that you… Read More
Your primary focus is on that individual animal that’s sick or needs your help that day, right?… Read More
And so you’re more on an individual basis. One of the reasons why I did the studbook was because I wanted to be on a broader basis, I wanted to help the species at large as opposed to just the individual animal. And that actually led to why I became… Read More
It didn’t matter to me. I think that was one cool thing about my upbringing is that I talk to anybody, it didn’t matter. Read More
So what were you learning while you’re doing this, about the zoo medical profession when you’re doing this job?… Read More
And were any of these lessons being learned at the time helpful once you became a zoo director?… Read More
But there was no in-house, full-time veterinarians in most zoos. So for starters, there weren’t many zoo vets. I think at that time there was 46, 48, something like that in all the zoos in all the country. And then women, there were very few. I think maybe I can… Read More
And you’d go to these director’s retreats, we had a once a year meeting where we’d go to these director’s retreats and talk about all the issues that we dealt with on a daily basis. But it was fun because it’s the only place I’ve ever been to where the… Read More
Did you tend to work more closely or speak with your women professional veterinarians at the time, or it just was even?… Read More
Now are you one of the few women veterinarians at this time in the profession?… Read More
Absolutely, oh yeah. Well for starters, there weren’t many veterinarians period. when I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo, Dr. Tom Meehan was the only veterinarian there. Now they have a ton of veterinarians. We’re here at Brookfield, they have 12 veterinarians, it’s crazy. But back then, like I said,… Read More
And so this was his comfort zone. Being in that exhibit was his comfort zone. That was his home. And so he tried to crawl back in. Well unfortunately the ladder didn’t hold like it did on the way up. And it knocked over, and he fell down, he broke… Read More
I mean, I think that’s one of the most fun things about zoos is that the animals don’t read the book, right?… Read More
And they don’t read a book. So, you’d walk in every single day and I would have an interviewer ask me, “What’s a typical zoo day?” There is no such thing. You never know what you’re gonna be dealing with when you walk in that door. It could be a… Read More
Right?… Read More
And in reality, that’s their home. That’s their home space. This animal was born in that facility. Read More
This was all the home he knew, the polar bear, right?… Read More
We had, at that time, two yearling polar bear cubs that had been born there. And during the day before, one of the maintenance staff had worked on something in the moat, and had left the ladder there in the moat. And so the polar bear had flipped the ladder… Read More
And the zoo’s gonna open in an hour, right?… Read More
But anyway, we called the alert, and by the time we got our darting equipment and everything ready to dart the bear, the poor guy had tried to get back across the ladder that he came in. They’re very intelligent animals. And so he had tried to figure out how… Read More