In 2010, about 38,000 elephants were poached in Africa, 38,000. Now, let’s just think about that a minute, 38,000 is more elephants than exist in all the zoos of the world. It may be more elephants than exist or have ever existed in all the zoos of the world. That’s… Read More
How are we going to stop this?… Read More
Should that money be better spent in what you have talked about with conservation in the wild, for elephants, as opposed to the grand amount of money?… Read More
How do you balance that and should one take precedent over the other or is there any answer?… Read More
We can do it better now. When I began in the zoo field, we didn’t have video. In fact, we didn’t have television at all. And so many of the wonderful tools we have now for exhibition were unknown. We have ways of bringing people close up to the animal… Read More
I only wish that Steve Jobs were still around and I could co-opt him for the work like this because it’s needed. Okay, all set. When you talk about presenting animals in a magnificent way, zoos today are spending tens of millions of dollars on elephant exhibits. Read More
Oh, the wonder of it. Sometimes it seems to require more space than we can provide. But the closeup beauty, the liveliness, when you look a condor in the eye, you have the feeling there’s somebody there who’s looking back, that doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen in any art museum… Read More
How do we convey that better?… Read More
When you travel in Europe, for example, and you go to a great cathedral, there’s something absolutely splendid about it, whereas my little sister used to say splendiferous, so that even if you are not religious, you’re impressed by that structure, by the feeling that it gives. Read More
One of the things I struggle with is seeing how can we get that feeling?… Read More
Why would you do so with a penguin, or a Python?… Read More
It’s a treasure. In some cases, there are fewer such animals than there are Rembrandts. For example, there are probably some 400 Rembrandts we know of, just about 400 California condors, many fewer Sumatran rhinos. And on the Rembrandt matter, we’ve often heard that he painted 400 paintings in his… Read More
What are in your opinion, the most important aspects of marketing your zoo?… Read More
I would say two things are important in marketing the zoo or the aquarium, first do not trivialize wildlife, do not trivialize your animals. One would not expect to see the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art trivializing, a Ruben’s Rembrandt. It’s a treasure. Read More
Or educate. It has been a remarkable and wonderful experience to attempt and actually succeed in getting the attention of a variety of bureaucrats. And these that range from the mayor of the city of New York, Ed Koch became a great backer of the Bronx Zoo, and many other… Read More
What advice would you have with your experience for the neophyte zoo director about the importance of marketing your zoo?… Read More
When you talk about that, you’re trying to reach people, but also you’re trying to reach decision makers, which many times equals the political process. So to bring it back a bit at your zoo or the zoos that you ran as general director, what’s the most efficient way to… Read More
You’ve had to retrain many bureaucrats during your tenure?… Read More
Is that still a viable conservation tool?… Read More
I don’t think I understand the– If you use the giant panda as the celebrated species of the ecosystem, in order to support every– And have people support, is that still a good tool for conservationist or zoo managers?… Read More