Right. I learned this from San Diego ’cause, obviously, San Diego was in the crosshairs of animal rights a lot being in Southern California. And the strategy that they used, which turned out to be pretty successful, was bringing the parties to the table, inviting them to the zoo for… Read More
Some directors, zoos in many cases today, are afraid to confront animal welfare rights groups that are anti-zoo, can we have your thoughts on the best way to deal with these groups?… Read More
Because A, I won’t see Okapi in any other place unless I go, I mean, I’ll see ’em in other zoos, but they’ve got Okapi, I want to go see Okapi. They’ve got shoebill. Read More
That’s the business side. We can’t exist without them. People aren’t gonna do it just naturally. They’re not gonna come in. Oh yeah, woke up this morning, decided to go to the zoo. Well, maybe not, unless you had somebody in town. So why would someone visiting Tampa from Montana… Read More
Why would you want to come to ZooTampa?… Read More
Probably not, but street credibility, I think is extremely important. You have to build that over time. And so if the institution starts off small because it can’t do anything else but, and you build up that credibility, then it only gets better through time. Read More
Yeah, I think, yeah, again, I always look for uniqueness and that can be locally or nationally or internationally, but part of our job is to get people to come through our gates, right?… Read More
Considering the financial resources available to many small and medium-sized zoos, what should be the focus of their collection?… Read More
Yeah. They have got to set forward with their bosses, the priorities budgetarily to make sure that they are in those fields. They can’t ignore it and say, oh, you know, we’re a municipal zoo, we don’t have the money to do that. The public’s not gonna buy that. The… Read More
You know, to me it’s about street credibility in conservation. You don’t just waltz into Africa and say, hey, we’re here to save everybody. And we got a big, fat check and we’re gonna write it for you, and here we go. Or, I’ve got three scientists who will help… Read More
Now, will they turn your money away?… Read More
Or this is our business return on investment. You know, those are hardcore numbers that come out of a database. You got some real unknowns in the animal business that you’ve gotta be able to work through and be able to explain. Nothing is ever a hundred percent in the… Read More
What do you think a small or a medium-sized municipal zoo today, what they have to do today to be involved in wildlife conservation, either nationally or internationally?… Read More
Okay?… Read More
Yeah, it’s a very good question. I will always fall to the animal side because that’s what I think, that’s what zoos are. It’s about animals. And not saying the business people aren’t important but that’s a profession that to me, the skillset comes from a different realm, I guess,… Read More
Unlike just pointing to a spreadsheet saying, you know, this is how we got to this number. Read More
But as the director, you need to be directing Mark to do that and to make sure that you then have checked other sources so that when your statement comes out from you as the director, you’ve done your homework. And you can stand behind that and substantiate it because… Read More
But the director needs to be able to steer that ship and say, okay, Mark, I know you’re the animal person and I need an answer on this particular issue with animal welfare, that the press is knocking our door down for, what is your opinion?… Read More
When you say directed, do you feel, in your opinion, is it better to have an animal person at the helm making directions or a business person at the helm making directions?… Read More
You know, I look back at Dr. Schroeder who had a lot of variety in his day, back in the late sixties, seventies. I mean, he had to worry about a lot of different things. And then it got very specialized. You know, we have specialists for this and specialists… Read More