Because, because I’d got this degree in zoology halfway through the veterinary course, I, I actually was eligible for Fellowship, scientific Fellowship of the Zoological Society of London, which I immediately joined. And also I think, you know, through my teens, my interest was very much in Hoofstock. Still is,… Read More
There were one or two publications you mentioned. We were talking earlier about Lee Crandall, Murray Fowler, but they were the only thing, there was nothing like the sort of specialist veterinary care that there is today. And so we had, we had to wing it and because it was… Read More
You, you simply drew on what little experience?… Read More
And fortunately, not too much error over those years. Lot of trial. Now many of these species are brand new to you. Read More
Ba basically it was managing, it was much more than just veterinary. It was managing the entire collection. So here was this 24-year-old coming straight out of VE college into, you know, into a situation where almost immediately I had to manage, I mean, there were what they call overseers. Read More
What were your responsibilities?… Read More
The only vet, but I was the fact previously, and it was still the case at the time, most zoos were reliant on local veterinary practices, you know, who were agricultural or mixed small animal agricultural. And London had had a full-time clinician and a full-time pathologist for quite some… Read More
I mean, we even had, you know, several hundred wallabies just roaming free within the, the fenced 600 acres. But it was very much a matter of managing 3000 animals between the size of a wallaby and an and an elephant. Read More
Now you were the only vet?… Read More
And, and a very good director of science, Len Goodwin and Len, certainly Len and Colin were very influential in, in my career. They were the two who really sort of, you know, were very good at pushing me forward. Read More
So what kind of, when you start in 1969, what kind of zoo do you find at Whip State? Can you describe it?… Read More
Sort of a large farm. It was nearly, nearly all the keepers had come from farming backgrounds. Very, very different to today when, you know, many keepers start with, with already a first if not a, a, a a, you know, may another degree. So they came from a farming… Read More
Colin Rollins was the director at the time. There was a, a triumvirate of directors. It was a, it was a rather odd setup. Prince Philip was chairman of the ZL board at the time. Lord Zuckerman was Secretary Soly Zuckerman. And there was a close relationship there. And Zuckerman… Read More
And who was the director who was in charge of Webster?… Read More
Victor Manam. Read More
And who was the, what was the name of that person?… Read More
It was the first full-time veterinary job that, that Whipsnade was, was putting together. There were only six full-Time Zoo vets in the whole of Western Europe at that time. We’re talking about late 68 now, six, yeah, late 1968. And what I did, which I always advise these youngsters… Read More
Pretty early. I would say in my mid-teens. I thought that I would probably go to do zoology and I don’t know who it was, but I think somebody said to me, and this is, you know, you’re looking at what the early sixties, somebody even then said, you are… Read More
And so he held the job for me until, I think that was a sort of October, November. And he said, well, as long as you come and work with me over the Christmas holidays and then join me after you qualify in March. And I did. And that, that… Read More
But, but the, it’s interesting that most people would say their secondary school was more influential. But actually my prep school, ’cause it was so unusual, was, was much more influential. Read More