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Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 50

And it happened that with our, so to speak, accidental discovery of the complex mating ritual of the Surinam toad, that I got into studying the behavior of those creatures, the reproductive behavior. But at the same time, because of the interest of people at the University of Chicago, I… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 48

Did you have a thought process of where you wanted to take this?… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 46

Well, the staff was, they were accepting and as I say with Snedigar, the curator of reptiles and amphibians, so he was certainly embracing, especially with my museum background. And the other principal curator was Karl Plath, who was curator birds. And Karl had an artist background. Indeed was still… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 47

And then the process, we were sampling the urine from all of the primates. And there was considerable resistance to sampling all of the primates, especially when you’re cramming them into steel cages to get uncontaminated urine. But eventually some came around, Jim Raul, for instance, in the small mammal… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 45

Were you embraced by the staff?… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 43

Was it, any other zoo ever at the time have anything like this?… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 44

Not really, not really, Mark, in terms of the field as a whole. There simply wasn’t the consistent application. I was proceeded in terms of my position by an investigator at New York at Bronx Zoo in the middle 30s. They had hired a man who was into animal behavior,… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 41

So it was quite an occasion at the University of Chicago when people from all over the world came to testify to the importance of that singular work in terms of how we had come to be, how we had evolved, and so on, and so forth. So that reinforced… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 42

So this university connection was a very positive one for the zoo. Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 40

Well, in terms of my making up the title on curator and coordinator of research, what I wanted to do was try to involve, especially, other people in studies of the animals and it didn’t matter what it was, whether it was in terms of the medical side of the… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 38

At any rate, so I did find some colleagues in respect to getting oriented and whatnot, but it wasn’t from the head of the zoo at the time, because he was preoccupied with the welfare and the behavior of the new newly acquired okapi. Now you gave yourself a title,… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 39

And what did you see your responsibilities as?… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 37

And he was a gifted person himself in terms of being able to articulate and craft words. And, for instance, Encyclopedia Britannica was producing a little children’s book. And it really was atrociously written. And at the last moment, they had photos, et cetera, they were all set to print. Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 35

(George laughing) Well, in terms of what I found when I came to Brookfield and explored on my own for the first month was that the director at the time was Robert Bean, the son of the original director. And he was absolutely entranced by, as I say, the arrival… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 36

So it was a quite good facility. And so I established quotas in the animal hospital and began dallying about in terms of what kinds of studies I might carry on. And in the process, of course, I got to know Robert Snedigar, the curator of the reptile house. And… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 34

What had you gotten yourself into?… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 32

Who was the director?… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 33

What did you come to?… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 31

Can you kind of talk to me in descriptive terms what was the zoo like when you first arrived?… Read More

Interview 13894 – Caption Index: 29

And I felt, well, what the heck?… Read More

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