You know, but, but you gotta be careful because you can’t throw somebody under the bus when you don’t know what, what they, the, the variables, the constraints that they had to deal with. When I left Disney, they said, you built holding areas too small. I said, I built… Read More
Now you had alluded before, how important is it for the zoo director to make rounds?… Read More
Like Lee Eke came after me and he made that zoo incredible. The Houston Zoo. ’cause ’cause we, we built a platform for him and we had donor base, but then Lee took it to the next level and that, that’s what you want. Read More
What, what was wrong with the old?… Read More
Why didn’t you, why didn’t you fix this before?… Read More
And, and then why did we have, how, how come the old guy was so bad?… Read More
Why do you think more zoos don’t have sister zoo relationships?… Read More
’cause they don’t know what that means. Sometimes some sister zoos, the, the zoos aren’t equal. Usually the, the, the, the rich zoo is in the United States and the sister zoo is in some developing country, and then they expect you to, you know, maybe fund the whole zoo. Read More
I mean, you, you, you just can’t clone the, the same zoo director every time. But, but he or she has to build into, you know, their legacy. A continuity. I see it all the time with the new, the new person comes in and, and, and it’s amazing how… Read More
It has to be an engaging exhibit. If you can do all three of those things, you’ve got a pretty good habitat. We had talked about national parks and the goods and the bads and why they were or were not working. Read More
We bring architects in that are zoo architects that know what they’re doing. Not architects that just build these monuments to themselves, you know, with, with no source of budget. So the planning process is much more strategic, much more comprehensive. And it includes the animal care staff. It makes… Read More
Have you seen this evolution of how zoo exhibits are approached?… Read More
What has been, in your opinion, the evolution of zoo exhibits?… Read More
Well, definitely there’s more planning involved and there’s more people involved in the planning. It used to be the, it used to be the curator said, oh, I like that. That’s my favorite animal. Let’s just put, I don’t care what the public thinks that, you know, I like prairie… Read More
I said, why, why, why did we put the rock bar?… Read More
’cause it had to look good on day one. I said, well then we should have brought more vines in on day one. But, Well, but you’ve seen these different exhibits. You’ve been, you know, intimately involved. Read More
They don’t have the right combination of vegetation. There’s so many things wrong with, with habitats. Don’t get me started. I go to a habitat. I say, oh, if you just did this and this, you know, or you put the keeper or you rotate animals. Yeah. You know, don’t… Read More
Petersburg Zoo, that enclosures were so small, but the keepers took such good care of those animals that they were part of the animal’s life that, that, that, that helped. But if the highlight of the animal’s day is to see their keeper and be fed, then you’re doing something… Read More
So within three years you couldn’t even see the rock work, the vegetation covered. Read More
How do you measure the smile on a kid’s face?… Read More