No, that our zoo is hugely successful in raising birds of paradise, but not at the time I was director. We built the collection up to the largest it ever reached. It was the largest collection in the nation, was after I brought these 15 birds of paradise in from… Read More
But the bird was hail and hardy, and the head of the airline guy, this was Bill Malay at that time, and he was the PanAm cargo general manager. Bill came out and a new Zealander named George Monroe, who was then in his 80s, the grand old man of… Read More
And it was a cleverly written thing. Essentially it was a tea party given with this, for this bird, in it’s one day in Hawaii. You had mentioned Sir Edmund Holmstrom and giving you birds of paradise. Read More
And we had several hundred earth worms that we’d collected. And so we had to dispose of those worms that came through with the, not the worms, but the soil that came through from New Zealand also. So as the crate was handed to me by the cargo manager out… Read More
And Ernie studied, he asked about the connections between when PanAm stopped in the West Coast, what happened from there to New York. And David told him, and Ernie said, “Now, wait, let me see.” And he asked his schedulers, and they were able to arrange, change the flight that… Read More
And he sent the Kiwis through the San Diego, named the kiwi Belle for Belle Benchley. Turned out to be a male, but they had it misidentified it as so frequently happens. But the important thing, when that kiwi came through, When I received the crate, and in that particular… Read More
Those three platypus, he had a huge shipping crate designed with a swimming pool, and then drying tunnels with dry hay that the platypus would cruise through and dry themselves so they prevent getting pneumonia. And that was so elaborate. It required getting sterilized soil. We sterilized soil here under… Read More
So that soil was not permitted to enter, it was disinfected in some manner. The new sterilized soil was utilized with the earth worms that would go in to be fed to the platypus from the time they left Honolulu and got to New York. And poor David was a,… Read More
They’ve come with maybe 10 hours, 12-hour flight, they’re exhausted, they’re drained. We cleaned them, I’d go to the airport. In most cases, the livestock remain there. But usually, they were unaccompanied. It would be baby elephants that would feed on a nursing bottle made for cattle. Louis Goebel brought… Read More
But that was a wonderful time in terms of how our zoo benefited from the ability to enable Sir Edward to set up a reliable shipping relationship for his animals. Because in those days, even airplanes took a long, long time, many hours from Sydney and New Guinea to the… Read More
He’d gotten them to Manila on a US Navy flight, somehow that had reconnected from the Admiralty Islands to Port Moresby, a complex route that Sir Edward employed when he could get no other way to transport animals. He would utilize the benefit of our military, on OC military aircraft. Read More
It’s always easier if private entities are providing funds that essentially seed money. And this is what Sir Edward, as our benefactor, enabled us to do. He gave a large number of birds, particularly birds of paradise. Many, many birds, kangaroos, cockatoos, rare, expensive cockatoos. Major Mitchell’s cockatoos of, many… Read More
One of them is Emily Hahn was the author of a book called “Animal Gardens”, which is about zoo directors. And she mentioned that Sir Edward Holstrom was, of all the directors that she interviewed, which are maybe two dozen for this book, traveled all over the world, he had… Read More
And there, we’ve designed an intermediate situation whereby mammals, such as mere cats and fruit bats are permitted, zoo only, with, not for pets, with males only. And with that proviso, the zoo gets to display them to the public at the same time, if a Vandal breaks open their… Read More
They already back to the ’20s, they were exchanging from San Diego and Honolulu as, and also to Sydney. But Sir Edward was able to establish it on a much more secure basis for the two reasons. One, he formalized it because he was able to, because he was, at… Read More
Not, what would be different about running a zoo, that I’ve found on an island, which incidentally is the farthest away from the mainland of any island group, it’s about 2,500 miles from the nearest land, which is the whole West Coast. I think the biggest part of it is… Read More
First of all, snakes alone as a whole group, are totally prohibited based on a state law that was established way back in Hawaii, it was a territory. And my successor Jack Throp enabled that law to be revised to zoo only, two only, males only, non-venomous only. But we’re… Read More
And is there any kind of an island mentality about running a zoo?… Read More
It’s not that other folks didn’t support the zoo, it’s just that Hawaiian people have always been particularly warm and affectionate toward their zoo, very emotional. It’s a tricky relationship there. And of course, the zoo is on the site of the original park established by King Kalakaua. So that’s… Read More
Okay, first question here is, what would you say were specific challenges and differences that only occur having a zoo on an island as opposed to the mainland?… Read More