And I often thought, “This doesn’t make a lot of sense, because hardly anybody goes into it and people don’t really like bats,” even though they should, ’cause bats are important. But it wasn’t really the type of facility I liked. And so there was many, many times where I… Read More
I’m sure that team was a little more, “Oh, okay boss.” No, the team, they did not wanna make the change. And some of them we found other jobs in the park because they said, “Well, we don’t wanna do that.” And I said, “I respect that. That’s fine with… Read More
Were there any animals, terrestrial animals, at the time that you said, “Oh my gosh, we got these?… Read More
What am I gonna do?” There was, in Williamsburg, we had a somewhat of a children’s petting zoo, very old-fashioned. And I was talking to the curator there. And we were there during the middle of the summer. And there was a little bit of an ugly, old exhibit. And… Read More
And I didn’t know much about them and where they came from. Read More
Can you make big decisions?… Read More
The activity level changed dramatically, but any time we decided to get involved with an acquisition of an animal, or a disposition of an animal, I would just simply take it to my boss, John, and others who succeeded him, and just said, “Here’s what I’m doing, here’s why. I… Read More
Now, this new position, it’s, again, all over the United States?… Read More
It is, the animals were at Busch Gardens Tampa and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the three SeaWorld parks, ’cause Ohio now had closed. We built Discovery Cove in the early ’90s. Aquatica has animals, now across the street here in Orlando. So there are animals at all those locations. Read More
I mean, you’re the top guy now. Well, the responsibilities just got more intense. I mean, there was more meetings and more contacts and more responsibility, obviously, ’cause you’re now the one being called at four in the morning and seven at night and ten at night and things like… Read More
And as the new zoological director, do you have a voice in animal acquisitions now?… Read More
I don’t remember a notebook. I don’t know. I know he said good luck a lot of times, but I can’t remember or recall that he gave me a notebook. Okay, well, I just wanted to jump ahead ’cause you mentioned his name. But just to back up, you become… Read More
And was this, again, Ed Asper leaves?… Read More
You raised your hand, or?… Read More
No, John Roberts just called me and said, “You’re it.” And I said, “Okay.” “You’re gonna be zoological director of operations,” and I said, “Okay.” And did your responsibilities change?… Read More
And we walk up, and I kind of thought, “Well, what’s going on here?” And everybody was really quiet for a minute. And the curator kept saying, “Well, they’re not building the overhang for the monkeys, and different than the way I wanted it done.” And I go, “Well.” And… Read More
And then, a short time later, a couple of years later, Jerry decided that was it so he went to retire. So we put somebody else down there. But, still, my introduction to that group was fun. And they were good people. Read More
Did he leave you a notebook?… Read More
And when people are sitting there watching it and there’s this classical music, I’m thinking, “This is pretty cool.” And then they’d go across the water together. And then they’d separate again into three groups and four groups. And I’m watching this thinking, “This is phenomenal. These birds are doing… Read More
And, again, that’s an idea you found somewhere else in the world and you shared it with somebody and just said, “Come on, we can do this, can’t we?” And so it was that kind of growth and that type of comradery that made it work. Now, I’m going to… Read More