You know, I belong to the zoo, I belong to PETA.” And, you know, well, wait a minute, hold on, you know. “Do you understand that they want to close?” “Really? Really?” It just shows you how ill-informed people are about not just zoos, but animals and nature. We need… Read More
What’s the problem, and how should curators be trained today to do what is expected of them?… Read More
Satch, you know?” And I was taken aback, and I said, “Why would you think I would know him?” “Well, he says he owns a zoo. You have to know him. You were in the zoo business.” And that just makes me realize that we still have a long way… Read More
I told him, I said, “I hope the guy rots in jail.” And they, you know, “Really?… Read More
So we actually, I actually did it at Riverbanks. I had invited some prominent zoo directors as well as heads of some animal rights organizations or more probably closely aligned with welfare than right. And we asked them to do one thing, and that was when they are doing their… Read More
I live in a retirement resort community. Read More
A lot of very successful, well-informed people, who I view as successful and well-informed, “Do you know that guy?… Read More
Same animals. Now whether the average visitor picks up on that or not or whether the average visitor cares, I don’t know, but I think it’s gonna be a sad day for zoos. Zoos, in many cases today, are afraid to confront animal welfare rights groups that are anti-zoo. We… Read More
Could you give us your thoughts on how best to deal with these groups?… Read More
I guess that, you know, part of the answer was in the question. It depends on the director. If the director is aligned, for lack of a better term, with those anti-zoo folks and organizations, I don’t know there’s a lot you can do. But I think, like anything, it… Read More
It’s kind of a sore topic with me. (laughs) If I can bare my soul, I left the profession a little concerned, and I still am. I don’t think… I don’t think we, and in this regard, I’m speaking of the AZA, did all that we could and should have… Read More
I just think that, as directors, we kind of took our eye off the ball. And so you wake up one morning and when you say, you know, or your curator comes in and says, you know, “We’ve got to, old Rocky, our male lion who’s 16 years old is… Read More
Regional, North American?… Read More
Dangerous species?… Read More
A mix of both?… Read More
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