And that’s how it all got started. Fred convinced them that he could bring them into the zoo from the wild, but they couldn’t by law. So he would do that, provided that they would pay for all the costs involved, and then he would share, to replace those animals,… Read More
And I continued that as I saw that I could, I bought more species and increased the numbers considerably. And I looked at it in terms of minimum for any new species of antelopes, two males, three females minimum. And if I could handle that in costs, then I could… Read More
And I ensured that they wouldn’t be injured so much by not having too much space. Its like, we all know that if you ship an antelope in a crate, you don’t give them a lot of space because they’ll only batter themselves up. So, you restrict their movement comfort,… Read More
Was it successful when you first got there because it had started, but what was your vision to keep it kind of continuing?… Read More
When I arrived in San Antonio in 1968, it was just about a year after Fred Stark had made some agreements with some ranchers to pay for his collecting some antelopes through dealers from Africa, especially. Read More
The ranchers had been to Africa, hunting and been there on safari for various reasons and enjoyed them and always felt like, wouldn’t it be great if I had some of those on the ranch where I could go on weekends and take a look at these wonderful animals right… Read More
Oh, it’s very important in San Antonio for people to be able to see whooping cranes, because for half the year, we have them down there on the coastline and they are big business for the vendors and so on with boats who take people out to look at them… Read More
Why was this collection successful and what do you think contributed to its success?… Read More
But they were from fertile eggs taken from San Antonio. Read More
Were birds brought back to the wild then from these hatchings?… Read More
They were returned to the wild as far as I know, but not to San Antonio, not to the San Antonio Zoo. Read More
So like the first gorilla birth, this was an important thing for the San Antonio Zoo?… Read More
It doesn’t bring in enough money to carry out the plans for keeping ranches the way they would like to keep them. So hunting leases are almost the only way you can hunt deer in and around San Antonio. Lemme move from just quickly ’cause we’ll get back a little… Read More
What was the San Antonio’s role with whooping cranes?… Read More
San Antonio at one time was the only zoo in the world that had a whooping crane. And when I came, Fred had already had a pair of them, Fred Stark, and not only had the pair, but because one of them couldn’t fly, that’s why we got it. He… Read More
That’s typical I think of all zoos and what they’re going through today and it’s probably worse today than it was then. I had the International Zoo Association in San Antonio and they picketed the meetings hotel and the meeting rooms because they were against zoos. And this was their… Read More
So did you ever have the opportunity or did you feel the need to speak with them, talk with them?… Read More
Did you have interaction with them at all on a discussion level, as opposed to them picketing the zoo?… Read More
I had discussions with them, but it was always private discussion. I didn’t have any incidents where they stood out in front of the zoo, demanding the zoo director to come out and talk with them. I can’t remember that that ever happened, but some of them were former employees… Read More
In 1992, did you have anything where animal rights people or groups were asking for resignations of your board in relation to any, did you ever have any, let me back up, did you ever have any problems at San Antonio with the animal rights people?… Read More