In 1986 I did a copy and a conservation project. And when you start doing papers at a ZA conferences, that, that’s, that certainly helps your resume. And, and also helped me, you know, and then I went back to San Diego. But those, those years in Miami were, were… Read More
He was really good about that. And, and then I did, did I got involved, that’s when I started giving papers. ’cause Dr. Hubl was big in a CA, he had been president one year, but he was the head of the programs community for many years. He goes, Rick,… Read More
It was a brand new zoo. Brand new zoo, 700 acres. Amazing piece of property. And, and all the mostly moats because you just dug down and you had natural and you had water. It was all water moats with coral rock. It was, it was a great learning experience… Read More
Oh, well she was nice. And she came in first in her class. She’s a really good runner. I said, okay, I’ll interview her. Read More
What kind of zoo was Metro Miami was?… Read More
We don’t even have marine, marine mammals. What do he said?… Read More
The zoo had opened before I got there. But that was just a small preview center. That’s why I met Dr. Hubble. We talked about him. He was the director at, at a certain point, but then he became, then he decided they had him as education curator. ’cause getting,… Read More
And I go, Kurt, I said, why did you give my number out to somebody in grad school in Marine?… Read More
She came in for an interview. She was in graduate school, in, in marine biology. And I remember my head gorilla keeper coming up to me one day and said, I gave your number to this girl that I met in this 10 K race. You know, that’s, that’s in… Read More
It wasn’t that hurricane proof we found out later with Andrew. But, and so one of the first things we did was move the giraffe. And, but we were, we moved them ourselves with open crates on the top. So their heads were sticking out and we’re going down. We… Read More
And you know, with the, with with me sitting on top of the crate, you know, trying to get its head down as we went through. So we tr we transported G ass. And it was, it was fun. You know, we had a new zoo. I was lucky to… Read More
We’ll come back to San Diego again. No, no, of course we will. But your, your curator of mammal’s job was 1982 to 1988. Yeah. At At Miami Metro. It Called Miami Metro. Now it’s Sue Miami. Yeah. And no, go ahead. So they, they hire you, They hire me… Read More
It just, and then they really wanted me even more. Jim did me a big favor. And, and, and so they hired me. And I was curator there for about six years. Read More
Are we done with, are we done with San Diego or did you want more?… Read More
And he, and I said, it’s Charlie Schroeder. You know, I got a picture of me standing next to him. We’re about the same size. You know, Charlie was even shorter than me. And just, that was, that was special. You know, he’d tell, he’d tell his stories. And then… Read More
And I started at the same time, Randy Rka started who be, who stayed there and had a long career there. And the two of us together, you know, were paired together. He was the farm boy. I was a city boy. I I, I had the degree, he had… Read More
At that point, I married a, a woman that was in vet school that didn’t work out because we, it just, the logistics of it didn’t work out. So, and well, first of all, now my dream came true. I’m a keeper at the San Diego Safari Park Zoo. Safari… Read More
I’m gonna go back there. And he said, what if, what in if if in another week I can guarantee you a position, would you stay?… Read More
No, I didn’t have a choice, you know, that, that, that was, was open. But I had Safari Park experience didn’t seem to matter. The other two were from inside the organization. Three of it. They had three new positions. And it was funny ’cause I went in to see… Read More
I go, well, well, I guess I already committed. But he said, just hang around for a week. He didn’t tell me that was a new position. And so it came. And so he got that position and, and I started, I I started at the Safari Park that, that… Read More