I think that the change in the qualifications of people that are running zoos is probably inevitable. Again, you go back to the time when majority of zoos were managed by municipal park departments, the director of these institutions were animal people. I can’t imagine any of them not have… Read More
Pretty much the norm of the day. There are pros and cons in today’s trend. Read More
If there is one, what’s your opinion?… Read More
All that time that I spent worrying about the zoo, I wish I’d had taken that time and spent it on family. Probably as you get older, I think we’ve all looked back and probably think, gosh darn it, probably should have spent more time doing that. I was very… Read More
If there’s a storm, is everything gonna be okay tomorrow?… Read More
And the weather’s bad, you worry about is the collection being cared for?… Read More
And in Oklahoma, there’s big storms. Read More
It becomes a way of life and you forget that you’ve got other things in your life than the job. And as you know, being a zoo curator, being a zoo director, 24-7, 365 days a week. Read More
I didn’t wanna be identified with that type of behavior. I want you to know where I stood. Now, if you provided information that was relevant and would made better sense than what I thought then by God, I’ll go for it. But until that time, if I’ve done my… Read More
I was a good collection manager but probably there’s some personnel issues, probably going back and looking at it. I’d probably say, I probably should have treated these and I should have done this a little differently later. Sometimes the personnel issues weren’t caused by me. They were caused by… Read More
I probably didn’t play politics very well. And so for that point, I wasn’t probably very good at that. And some people are, some people aren’t, I probably was too candid. Probably should have kept a lot more on my chest but that’s just the way I am. We’re all… Read More
There’s probably those who would argue the point. (laughter) I don’t know. I don’t think I was that much different than others. I believed in the purposes of the institution. I believed in plans. I believed in working plans. I believed in all the logical approaches that had been done… Read More
When we run up against something that was different. Yeah, you don’t know till you try but you do it. I’m a big risk manager. I am not a gambler. So, if I ventured into a space that I didn’t know about, I wasn’t comfortable with, I did it with… Read More
Made me a good one?… Read More
Everybody been told this is gonna happen. We’ve known people that the same thing has happened to. So, everyone was aware that this could happen and it did. And one night she went down and couldn’t get back up and then we had to euthanize her. Read More
What made you a good zoo director?… Read More
So, Judy the elephant had spent the majority of her life there. When we had a definite confirmation that she had cancer, we had a press conference and we let the community know immediately. Judy has got a health issue. Now, everybody knows about cancer. There’s some cancers you can… Read More
Judy the elephant and the new dolphin Lily and that type of thing?… Read More
I don’t remember so much about the death of Lily. Those animals didn’t belong to the zoo. And when it came to and I don’t even know that I remember why the animal died but I think our veterinarian and the veterinarian that worked with that particular entity, I think… Read More
How did you handle the deaths of popular animals?… Read More