Interview 8364 – Caption Index: 42
No, there were not very many gorillas and certainly none that were breeding, no one had ever seen a gorilla breed in captivity, let alone give birth. Read More
No, there were not very many gorillas and certainly none that were breeding, no one had ever seen a gorilla breed in captivity, let alone give birth. Read More
Now you built the great ape house or the primate building specifically for the gorillas, or they were put into a section that already existed?… Read More
The great ape house in Columbus was a series of cages an indoor and outdoor facility for gibbons, orangs, chimps and hopefully for gorillas. Read More
You acquired a male, a female, they all came together?… Read More
The first gorillas at the zoo, how did that start?… Read More
The first gorillas that came to the Columbus Zoo was a male, Mack and a female, Millie and a third gorilla, a female named Goma, I believe. They were young. I was put in charge of caring for them. In fact, I picked them up at the railroad station where… Read More
There weren’t a lot of gorillas in the country?… Read More
Or why don’t we think about that?… Read More
In fact, Earl was in the stage where he could, he was beginning to do a master plan for Columbus after that thing that happened in Columbus that made Columbus Zoo what it is today. And that is the birth of the first gorilla in captivity. We’ll talked about that… Read More
So you had, kind of backing, you had great apes, how did that start?… Read More
Or did this allow you to come to him with maybe things you had been thinking about as curator?… Read More
I was allowed to, I had the freedom to come to him and talk with him about how we should develop an exhibit or make a change in the collection. By that time, I had met some of the animal dealers, I had been involved with other zoo curators and… Read More
So, it wasn’t unusual for me to do that, to go to Earl and say, can we do this?… Read More
I was amazed at how well they took to my being promoted right past them, you know?… Read More
And I think mostly they thought of me as one of them anyway. They were very happy for me to be able to progress. And I’m so thankful that they did that and they allowed me to be part of that crew, you might say that we had there at… Read More
Now, did Earl tell you what he expected of you in the sense of how he wanted you to approach the care of the animals?… Read More
Well, I was 23, I guess when I’ve got my first job as a curator and I remained the curator until I was appointed assistant superintendent to Earl Davis. And shortly after that, well, he passed away. Read More
Now, when you started this job as a young man, as a curator, you had already been there, so the staff knew you, were there challenges for you as a young guy, even if they knew you coming in, working with all these people you’ve maybe worked with before, and… Read More
There really wasn’t a problem. Read More
No, I did not. I relished it. I thought this was the greatest thing could happen to me. And as it turned out, it really was. Read More