And each time that would open up, people would say, they’d say, “Are you gonna interview for that job?” And I go, “Well, certainly.” And I would go in and just say, “I would really like to have that job.” And they’d say, “Well, what makes you think you can… Read More
(chuckles) How do you do it?'” And they thought, “Well, that’s a humble approach to it. Well, okay.” So I never interviewed really for a job. I just got moved from one to another. And I just raised my hand said, “I’ll do that.” And they said, okay, “You’ll do… Read More
My last one, an animal keeper is, after time doing that, at times, do you miss the days when you were just there with your walruses?… Read More
And I thought, “Well.” So we got down, we went down to the pier, got the boat and got a surfboard and we tried to approach it with a boat. And that wasn’t working, ’cause the bird would just fly off and move down further away. Finally, I got on… Read More
So you are working at Marineland from 1972 to 1977 and, during that time, you’re a full-fledged animal keeper?… Read More
Actually, yeah, I was an animal keeper and then I was an assistant curator and then the general curator. So, really, it was 15 years. It was ’72 to ’86. Read More
But that one stint was your keeper experience?… Read More
And did you have experiences with them?… Read More
Yeah, all the time. Bill Walker was the general curator. He had studied mammalogy, and he was really fascinated by all of the stranding. He started actually started the Stranding Network in Southern California. Jerry Goldsmith was the curator of fishes, and Jerry went on to work at SeaWorld also. Read More
What were some of your adventures with your charges that you think about or (indistinct)?… Read More
There was a lot of different experiences. And, you know, I should write a book one day, but it would be fun. I can remember different experiences when somebody would say, “Hey, listen the walruses are giving,” you know, like, “The walrus is having its pup now.” So we’d drain… Read More
What were the- The structure there at that time was like, you know, the lowest person was the fish house guy, and that was me. And then there was keepers and trainers and aquarists. There was three different categories. And then there was a curator of each division and then… Read More
Then, there was an opening as a keeper. And as I said, I was mentored then by Andy Soric. And he taught me all about the other animals that weren’t necessarily in the show areas. And so I learned a little bit of everything. Read More
Who was the director of Marineland who was the general trainer?… Read More
So had you moved up now?… Read More
Was your title move from the fishes to now you’re an animal keeper?… Read More
What was the structure like?… Read More
And as he watched the people there training the animals and he realized that their paradigm was wrong. And he had started to work with, you know, being more positive reinforcing and the animals getting reinforced for doing the correct behaviors and things like that. And you just ignore bad… Read More
It was from his days as a butcher way earlier on in his career. And this is how I would force-feed the animals, I would gather them up and sort of squat over them and tuck their flippers. And then, I would take and let them bite me with the… Read More
But it didn’t take very long. But Tom was watching me and he was fascinated. He says, “You’re doing this by yourself?” And I said, “Well, nobody else is helping me, so, yeah.” So he’d helped me. And then we started talking about training and reinforcing the animal and making… Read More