So I went up there and then a rather difficult trip with the help of the Chilean entomologists, Luis Pena, who had guided Peterson, I was able to get a small collection of James flamingos. The first ever, and to get them to feed and do well and I brought… Read More
And the Chileans are trying to preserve all of their lakes that have any species of flamingo breeding. So sometimes these things can be multiplied and it doesn’t hurt that flamingos are absolutely beautiful and the James flamingo is the most exquisite of them all. A remarkably beautiful bird. But… Read More
Did anybody know anything about the status of flamingos?… Read More
What could we do here to learn something about it and should we be examining the status of the world’s flamingos generally?… Read More
Was this a highly endangered species as appeared to be the case?… Read More
It was thought to be extinct for years. Read More
Roger Tory Peterson, the famous ornithologist and author of so many bird guides that taught many of us everything we ever wanted to know about telling bird A from bird B had, been there. And Roger brought back the first photographs ever of the James flamlingo that were worth having. Read More
What was his real status?… Read More
Then it would fly back in to the same perches and call again. It would go to perch one, perch two, perch three in two or three different trees. Having seen that, I was able to mark the trajectory of its flight with some little poles I put in the… Read More
It flew into the net, we lowered the net, put it in our caring box and took it back and Will Beebe finally got to see a bearded Bellbird close up. That was followed by quite a lot of interest to the New York Times, which brought a lot of… Read More
So I said, “Okay.” And I went down and collecting the bird was a fascinating experience. It took me more than a week of watching constantly the tree tops where the birds were calling to even see them. It’s a pigeon sized bird and it would disappear in the leaves… Read More
Can you describe the hardships?… Read More
When I became a curator at the Bronx Zoo, it was not unexpected for the curator to go in the field, although I guess not very many did to get particular animals for a particular purpose. Those were early days, the late ’50s, early ’60s, and we were interested, I… Read More
The World of Birds succeeded the old 19 three bird house on Astor Court at the Bronx Zoo. So it was made the old building was maintained until the World of Birds open. So getting birds for the World of Birds was primarily a matter of transferring birds from one… Read More
How did you make it happen?… Read More
On another exhibit, we had talked about collecting a little, but how difficult was it to collect birds for the World of Birds exhibit?… Read More
Did they come from the wild?… Read More
Did this exhibit have a conservation conclusion that you have tried to do then in future buildings that you did, or was this a little earlier in that development?… Read More
This was earlier, and the effort here was really to interpret for the visitor the behavior of animals who earn their living at night, because it was so little known. And that in itself, I think helps to build a constituency, excitement, which you can turn into conservation, but every… Read More
Are there still animals physically in it?… Read More