Interview 12083 – Caption Index: 294
But the question’s more of was the zoo prepared to handle this type of emergency?… Read More
But the question’s more of was the zoo prepared to handle this type of emergency?… Read More
This is a dangerous animal. And what lessons were learned?… Read More
It’s just a process. So from that standpoint, I think that you, it’s all part of the job that you have to be able to do. You find the animals, you talk to the people, you have to negotiate, sometimes, it’s alone, sometimes it might be a price. I had… Read More
Where do you find an aardvark?… Read More
They’re not, you can’t go to the grocery store and, “Give me two aardvarks here.” So you have to find them. And they were hard animals to locate. And I remember talking to one animal dealer at the time who was importing animals from Africa. And he gave me a… Read More
And then I went to some other zoos and, “You got?” “Oh yeah, we have a surplus male, Mark. Would you take our male?” It’s just a process. “Yes, of course we will. How much?” “Oh, it’s a loan. There’s no money.” “Thank you very much.” Better steal. Better steal. Read More
Well, I think again, because of the building and the things we were doing, we were charged, we weren’t a giant staff at the time. We were charged with a lot of responsibility of putting things together, trying to figure out new exhibits, what animals, where to get them. And… Read More
I mean, sometimes you could do it on your own. You could get the materials and you could work with the keeper staff and get that done. Other times, when it became a much bigger project, you had to have more of the expertise of people. But we did that… Read More
You’ve already spoken about making connections, international connections as well as national, any challenge that way with getting animals?… Read More
Well, I think that the challenge always was finding where the animals were, whether they were national or international, knowing how to transport, again, soapbox, knowing how to part of a curator’s responsibility, at least, the way I grew up, was learning to write permits, and learning to deal with… Read More
Somebody’s gotta be in charge here. You know?… Read More
Yeah. And so I think I tried to make my management style in such a way that, as I say, do unto others, that I always got that and I wanted them to have the same kind of atmosphere that they could enjoy their job have, fun with it. That… Read More
Could you talk a little bit about your involvement with long term planning at the zoo?… Read More
I mean, everybody’s not gonna look at you in the same vein, but I’ve had certain animal keepers who have gone on to hire positions, say to me, “Oh, Mark, when I talk to my keepers that I have to talk to, I hear your words that you said about,”… Read More
And we had a trainer who would train us and was very, Don Meyer, a wonderful man who knew his profession and was very insightful and philosophical. And one of the lessons I learned from him was never defend what you say. Never defend, explain. You should never be in… Read More
And so here, we had people. We were learning from Don. And we were, I just always felt that sometimes I was insistent on doing certain things ’cause it was a safety thing. I would always tell people, “I’m never gonna tell you what to do without telling you why… Read More
If it’s an emergency situation, we have to react to this. We can’t be debating stuff. Read More
So how would you say the staff describes you as a manager?… Read More
Wow. That’s a really interesting question. I would always say that my best quality is my worst quality and that is you know where you stand with me. I’m not a devious person. I don’t think so. So if I’m upset, you know I’m upset. If I’m happy, you know… Read More
Yeah. But I always, I appreciated the fact that people allowed me to do my job and have fun with it. And I wanted everybody else, I didn’t wanna micromanage, I wanted them to do their job and at times, guide and talk and so forth. So I don’t think… Read More