It was like pulling teeth. (laughs) You know, I gave a presentation one time at a zoo directors conference on SSPs and how they had, how effective they were or how they had involved. And the first slide that I had was that famous Pogo cartoon slide of “We have… Read More
Once people saw what was happening and the benefit of it and not wanting to be left outside the room while everybody else was playing inside, that took care of that problem. Read More
What was one of the most important pieces of advice you received that stayed with you throughout your career?… Read More
There are… And I have apologize, I’ve lost track of the number of AZA-accredited zoos, not zoos and aquariums, but zoos, but I’m gonna guess it’s 190 to 200. Private zoos in the manner in which you described them make up a very small percentage of that. Some of them… Read More
How difficult, when you were at AZA, was the Species Survival Plan to implement for zoos and aquariums?… Read More
Did everyone buy into this program?… Read More
Yep. potentially a lot of money. Yep. They have endangered species. Yep. Read More
Do you have an opinion about private zoos and their longevity versus we’ll call the public municipal zoos?… Read More
Can I throw in versus public municipal zoos and private nonprofit zoos?… Read More
We had a sister zoo relationship with a zoo in Japan. I don’t know that any of those relationships have really endured. They were very popular 25-30 years ago, but I don’t have much of an opinion on that. I don’t know how many- I don’t even know how many… Read More
It was really hard. What motivated them was very different. Their education was very different. But I thought it was well worth it. I thought it was well worth it. But we haven’t done that in a long time. There are some zoos that are private zoos. They have private… Read More
And as I said, it’s gonna be very difficult for all, but maybe none, to keep elephants the way they should be kept, and that’s on many, many acres with facilities for bulls and cows. But they’re magnificent creatures and probably speak more to the animal world and the animal… Read More
Do you have an opinion about sister zoo relationships?… Read More
I think we all know that. I mean, the first thing is space. Second thing is appropriate herd structure, allowing males to stay with their mothers and aunts and siblings for 9 to 12 years. It’s just that to do it right, to do it right requires a tremendous amount… Read More
They were kept in cages with sterile tiles, sterile floor. And we thought our zoo directors and curators back then thought that these were such delicate animals that they had to be kept in these pristine, sterile conditions, and it was the absolute wrong thing to do. Today, the gorilla… Read More
We know that now. And the same with gorillas. Those shifts in management, those shifts in how we maintained those animals almost exclusively occurred to the research that was being done in the wild. And that’s what we’ve learned with elephants, how they communicate, the herd structures. So I hope… Read More
That’s all it was. Great people, I loved them all, but it was sometimes it was like beating your head against the wall. You know, and WAZA was really a club. It was zoo directors only. It started out as IUDZG, the International Directors. I-U, the International Union of Directors… Read More
And they actually, there was a rule. It was never written anywhere, but it was a hard and fast rule that only so many American zoo directors could be involved. It was very much a Europe/Germany-focused organization. I’m glad to say it’s not that way anymore. A lot of, it’s… Read More
Given your experience, what’s your view regarding zoos maintaining elephants and how it should be done correctly?… Read More
What’d you mean by that?… Read More