This is the Commonwealth Government of Australia. One of our staff lobbied them and did some work on their biosphere reserve management, et cetera. And she effectively persuaded them along with members of the community to come up with the money. And the Chicago Zoological Society actually purchased the station… Read More
And as a result, they abolished the leases and the Murray-Sunset National Park was declared, one million hectares. And we assisted in terms of their early monitoring of the both the fauna and the recovery of the vegetation. We assisted with, again, volunteers as well as staff assistance. But then… Read More
No, no, in terms of Brookfield’s presence in Australia, that officially ended in 2006. But if you don’t mind, I’ll tell you what effects our presence has had there. And it’s involved, not just staff, and visiting staff from Brookfield, but also volunteers, also trustees. And we have had a… Read More
And one of the doctoral study was actually done on the cryptogams on the soil that recovered. These are fungi and other lichens that with the very slight rain that they have in such a place, very slightest rain, they dumped the nitrogen into the soil. With the sheep around,… Read More
Is Brookfield still have presence in Australia?… Read More
In terms of the population genetics developments in zoos and the, especially the development of population viability analysis in regard to the species survival plans that zoos, combining both their animal collection holdings and their knowhow, it seems to me that that has been extremely important. And one of the… Read More
And if you continued in the vein that zoos were on before and before the real restrictions on the movement of animals imposed by governmental and other factors and other forces, it seems to me that you’ve got to pay attention on this front. And so Bob and company, and… Read More
(George chuckles) Well, if they’re professionals, it should be one of the invaluable assets of a respectable institution. And we recognized that very early on and tried to build up the holdings. New York, of course, is absolutely superb in that regard, but many other institutions of note, in terms… Read More
Can you tell me more about that and how it has helped zoos?… Read More
Speaking of libraries, how important would you say a zoo library is to the professional staff?… Read More
To what extent was your wife Mary’s involvement instrumental in your research and other programs at the zoo?… Read More
(George chuckles) Well in addition to her own direct involvement, say in the wolf and frog studies, God, she was very tolerant. I’ve used that word a lot, but it means a lot in terms of simply putting up with my goings and comings and the time I spent with… Read More
So I’ve tried to put people forward, I’m director of the zoo, who are they yet?… Read More
And so you offer them opportunities to co-author and advancements of that kind to get their name out there. And Bodmer is one of my proudest achievements. Read More
A sort of summary study on the wolves was published And major work on the okapis was published in the Antwerp celebratory volume called “Zoom op Zoo.” It’s not widely distributed and it’s more comprehensive, I feel, than the subsequent books that have been published by other zoos on the… Read More
I mean, people think they’re going to gamble with the pandas and that’s just not on. We talked about research of various animals, and you’ve mentioned some of them. Read More
Were your studies and your wife Mary’s studies of the wolves, the okapis, and other animals, were they published?… Read More
It was a momentary interest on the part of the board of trustees in replicating the panda exhibitry at Brookfield Zoo. And as you noted, Brookfield was the first, back in the 30s, to exhibit giant pandas. And so when the opportunity came when China was relaxing on that front,… Read More
With the animals or proud moment with revolved around the management of animals. (George chuckling) I’m not sure how to respond to this question in terms of my accomplishments with the animals, was mainly providing for their welfare, their longevity in the circumstances we provided. I mean, there are always… Read More
Did you consider trying to bring pandas to Brookfield Zoo when the opportunity presented itself?… Read More