Well, you have to, you have to listen to them because they’re used to being listened to. And then you have to educate them if you can. Mc Mathias was a, he a congressman, a senator, I don’t remember in Maryland. He was very interested in the zoo and he… Read More
What do you think is the most efficient way if there is to deal with elected officials and bureaucrats in order to develop and manage a zoo today or when you were there?… Read More
Oh yeah. Always. That never goes away. That’s what it, that’s part of the job. The welfare of your animals is what keeping animals in captivity is all about. Right. So yes, definitely. You were in a unique position because you were in a national zoo. Read More
Yeah, I’m not in favor of them. What, Just off the top of my head, because you’re not controlling the diet of the animal, you know, I, I’d say grab their interest and their involvement in another way. Read More
Do you think zoos and aquariums need to be more involved with animal welfare?… Read More
What do you think could messages that, those type of feeding programs conveyor, what they should convey?… Read More
I don’t know if it was like in September, it was probably in late September, they’d start getting out of the cage and they’d be running around the zoom. We’d catch ’em and the practice was to bring ’em back and put ’em back in. You hadn’t changed the barrier. Read More
But I told him and his face dropped. I was like, what?… Read More
I’m trying to think of some other examples of that. Well we had, we had Arctic foxes at the Brookfield Zoo, and I found out that, well they came over and they got me to do the, help us catch the Arctic Foxes. They had a litter and they have… Read More
He said, you’ve got a baby wombat. And I mean, the keeper wants to be the one that reports those things, but if you can show him up doing it yourself, it keeps ’em on their toes. You know, you don’t let it slip, let that one slip through your… Read More
When you were from wild and even in Nashville Zoo, how important do you think is it to make rounds?… Read More
Well that was something I did as soon as I started at Brookfield. And I loved making rounds because it was kind of a, it was a challenge to find something that your keepers didn’t see. It kind of proved your value as a curator. So when you made the… Read More
I, I was, this is something I was not good at. I was taught from a very young age not to ask for things, not to ask for. Asking for money to me was anathema. I just didn’t know how to do it, didn’t feel right about doing it. I… Read More
That takes a certain kind of personality and a certain kind of outlook on life and certain justification rationalization, which I could not muster. I don’t pretend that I’m any better than anybody who can do that. I’m not, but I just didn’t have the skills for it. I had… Read More
Did you Get the leash on me again?… Read More
Did you have to, did you have to work with donors to try and Yeah, Motivate them in certain directions?… Read More
Well, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on today. I know that there are a lot of people that want to identify with an institution that they love and that they feel is important. And so they would like to adopt the institution and they want to give… Read More
Possibly as compared to when you had to deal with that? Or is it the same?… Read More
Yeah. And what do you think motivates donors to today?… Read More
So, you know, bill Conway said, I’m not, we don’t want pandas, I don’t want pandas. If they wanna see bears, they can see bears. ’cause a giant panda is a bear, it’s just colored differently, you know, that was his stand on it. And nobody turned away going to… Read More