When the building opened, we had lines of people, six people wide extending for 1/2 a mile. The first day it opened, we had 62,000 people that one day, and it remained an extremely popular building. It was not without problems in my opinion. Because it was dark, we had… Read More
But the building worked very well indeed. And the building is closed now, you know that. When the zoo, this happened, I guess last year or a year before, the zoo close many exhibits because of cutbacks in its budget. And so they closed that building. They wanted to close… Read More
Almost a majority, perhaps a majority of mammals are nocturnal. Most mammals see the world in shades of gray. The World of Darkness at the Bronx Zoo came about as the vision of the mammal curator, in those days, Joseph Davis. And Joe felt that he could exhibit colorblind animals… Read More
And he changed all the lights to red in one nocturnal section and put them on a reverse light cycle, making them bright white light at night. The building was so successful and so popular that the World of Darkness as a concept came about and Joe Davis led its… Read More
Easy, difficult?… Read More
Did it survive the test of time?… Read More
Let’s talk about the development of an exhibit called World of Darkness, your initial vision of it, dealing with the board, getting the funds, how did the public receive it?… Read More
Getting animals, deciding what they would be?… Read More
How did you bring the various thinkers in and the various people who were going to help?… Read More
I remember I discussed this with Congo at length, with the exhibits, people, the curators, vets, everybody. I can discuss it again if you’d like, but it’s the same story. Okay. number nine. Okay. (indistinct) answer. Read More
What was involved from maybe something, an idea you had seen or carried through to, (indistinct)?… Read More
I don’t understand what you’re saying, Mark, what animal themes. I want us to talk about Congo specifically, but when you were thinking about the World of Birds, in a sense of a theme that you were going to do, what was the process then after you came up with,… Read More
And it works. You developed animal themes at the zoo. Read More
Could you take us kind of through the process of how did this come about the process?… Read More
When I went to the Bronx Zoo, it was like the old business about Boston, about the cabbits only speaking to God. And at the zoo, curators, there was a definite chasm between the curators and the veterinarians, not that there were very many of either. So I immediately started… Read More
The recorders, had to pass out a weekly record sheet that showed every single acquisition or birth, every single death, the curators and the veterinarians were expected to talk about any instance of illness or inappropriate behavior on the part of the animals, not the visitors. And this made a… Read More
Can we do this?… Read More
Can we get the curators and the veterinarians to work more closely together?… Read More
Do we wish to sustain this particular species, do we have a responsibility to bring in another species?… Read More
The Sheboygan Zoo wants us to make available a young female of this species. Read More