Well there really wasn’t any program it was just whatever the curator wanted you to do. There were two of us in the mammal department and one in the bird department Don Briggs was in the Bird department with Joe Bell who was the curator of birds then. I worked… Read More
People who go there never leave there.” And I said that doesn’t sound bad to me if you never leave. He said I’m picking up the, picking out the new director for the Sacramento zoo. Ill get you the job in Sacramento if you want same as California but don’t… Read More
He said, “Don’t go there, why do you want to go there?… Read More
Must have been something in the Louisiana newsletter we used to get from the zoo group. But I did hear from Bill runner told me about it also. Then when I was offered the job he didn’t want me to go. Read More
How did you learn about this opportunity at the zoo in New York, at the Bronx?… Read More
Yeah. So I was taking any kind of job in a zoo, I applied for a job in Oklahoma City as a curer of education but I wanted to get my foot in the door. I just wanted to get in and then I’ll work on it once I get… Read More
Did you know that you wanted to be more than an animal keeper, was that in your mind and were you thinking about how can I achieve this when you first started?… Read More
Well I think that hodge podge in the aviary there were a lot of nice birds in there but it was kind of just things that we didn’t know where they came from they were there in the aviary because we didn’t know where else to put them. I can’t… Read More
What experience did you have at the zoo as a keeper that may have changed your notion on what zoos should be like?… Read More
Service shower as you’d call it. He asked that I moved to better offices at the time. He didn’t have a secretary when I took over. So we didn’t see very much of him. You know if he was there hanging around then yeah, but we didn’t see much of… Read More
Well I saw the supervisor everyday when he came in in the morning. The supervisors were there. They were responsible for our assignments and because I was new on the field then and I ended up filling in apes two days a week and the aviary two days a week. Read More
As a keeper, that you were hired, did you have much interaction with the zoo director and the senior staff?… Read More
That’s what he said to me. I said no they’re not plumbers. Strong animals. They’ll tear it apart if you don’t do it right. Now, I want to talk more about that in a minute because we’re gonna get to that part but lets stay with the sanfrancisco zoo for… Read More
What do you think we are, plumbers?… Read More
So I said yes, I know. I don’t think he liked that very much. That’s when he said, I mentioned something about orangs and he said how would you design an exhibit for orangs and I said well, very strong, very strong. And they like to climb. So build a… Read More
I mean obviously no women. No women, I was one of two college graduates they had that were keepers. Then the fellows, kind of a talker but they didn’t do anything. Got frustrated by him. Then I saw where (indistinct) and I applied and may 16 1967 I was interviewed… Read More
When you came to the zoo what was the keeper forsight?… Read More
The things I wanted to do I saw. And also in san francisco, the keepers picked their assignments. Which was pretty strange and they went by seniority. There was a really good guy responsible for the aviary, to take care of the animals and the birds in the aviary and… Read More
Yeah, Victoria Crown pigeon. Pair on Victoria Crown pigeons were trying to nest up in the rafters and it was only a turkey in there, in the aviary. The aviary was just a mish mash of whatever they had. The turkey was living in the nest the crown pigeons were… Read More
Victoria?… Read More