After being at Philadelphia for three or four years, my wife and I and of course, by that time we had two children. We had gotten into the eastern way of life but we would’ve liked to get back to the Midwest. She was a farm girl outta Carroll in… Read More
So, it wasn’t mainly concern with him but I could see that after he retired, I might not be promoted to the curator level. So, I started giving some consideration to maybe going to another institution, maybe more back into the Midwest. And as it happened, the St Louis zoo,… Read More
Haven’t been on one since for good reason. (chuckles) Now, at Philadelphia, how’d you see your career moving at Philadelphia?… Read More
What were you thinking of and your goals?… Read More
And after, I don’t know, four hours on this horse and this horse would not obey, it wouldn’t get in the water. A lot of things it wouldn’t do. And I said to the lady who owned the estancia, I said, “Will he find his way back?” And she says,… Read More
(laughs) We stayed at an estancia that had gauchos and it was a working estancia and we collected these waterfowl out in these lagoons and marshes and stuff. And we built a pen and put up some wire. And so, we were maintaining the collection there until we could box… Read More
And we suddenly realized that some of the birds we were collecting were disappearing. Now, predation is not an uncommon thing but you usually know the signs of predation. There was no signs of predation. Then we found out the gauchos were eating them. So, we say, “Hey guys, don’t… Read More
Mike Lee. Mike… Boy, I’m having a senior moment. I’ll think about it. Anyway, he’s with Wildfowl Trust, we went to Argentina to collect waterfowl and we went to Argentina and we went to the Falklands to collect steamer ducks and things like that. And that was a pretty successful… Read More
Yes, we did the expedition in 1971 to Ecuador. We were there for a couple of months collecting. In 1973, we participated with the Wildfowl Trust and Gus didn’t go on this trip but I went on with Mike… Lee. Read More
Huh?… Read More
Did you have other opportunities at Philadelphia to get field experience?… Read More
Any good bird stories?… Read More
Well, probably just some of the successes we had that were really… Were there any successes where you were notable in putting it together and it was like, that was a great idea. Not at the Philadelphia Zoo. At the St. Louis Zoo we were the first to breed bateleur… Read More
What is there to gain from this?… Read More
He was a good collection planner, very good collection planner. We just didn’t throw things in for the sake of throwing things in. Read More
I think the basic philosophy and this came largely from Gus, the basic philosophy is if we’re going to do it, we do it right and that very little was knee jerk. And although I had a lean toward impetuosity, he was always the calming factor. I could always tell… Read More
All of the things that you think about before you’re doing a bird exhibit. I’m trying to remember. I know that I probably looked at the surplus lists that we used to get in those days, which were many, probably a little more closely than he did because that was… Read More
And in managing this collection and working on these exhibits, were there philosophies that you were learning that would help you later on in your career?… Read More
Do we have the right space?… Read More
Are we able to provide the proper food sources?… Read More