(William coughs) I am concerned that zoos have been very slow to recognize their responsibility, to make conservation their core public service. It’s taken them a long, long time. Zoos had no accreditation program until 1972 when I wrote it. There was no species survival plan until some years later,… Read More
Are zoos embracing these ideas?… Read More
They understand that. I’m not so sure that people did 50 years ago at the St. Louis Zoo, but it would also be fair to say that not nearly as many animals were endangered, then. Read More
During your career, many issues have come up, but what issues caused you the most concerned during your career and how do you see the future regarding those same concerns, or have they changed?… Read More
And yet the people coming to the Bronx Zoo today have a better understanding when we ask them, what is ecology?… Read More
When we ask them, are animals endangered?… Read More
Is this animal endangered?… Read More
(William sighs) I have no data. It’s not a question I can answer. Would you say though, that things that you have done in the various zoos in New York and at the Bronx have helped to bring visitors or give them a better understanding of some of the things… Read More
Perhaps that is because I grew up in St. Louis. There were a great many people from the country who came to the St. Louis Zoo. They’d handled horses, and goats, and sheep, and cows and chickens. Very few people come to the Bronx Zoo who have that sort of… Read More
There is actually however, a great many people who fancy themselves as curators in waiting. And the zoo responsibility is to establish more training programs and a good many curators came out of programs in New York I’m happy to say, and became directors or became curators in other places… Read More
What changes have you seen during your years in the zoo field regarding visitor attitudes at the national level?… Read More
Why would a curator want to take on what is often recognized as such an onerous responsibility?… Read More
For a zoo to obtain trained curators nowadays is not an easy thing. Read More
Where is the curator to be trained?… Read More
How should curators be trained today?… Read More
What is expected of a new age or the new curator?… Read More
What’s the problem?… Read More
Is there a problem?… Read More
Unfortunately, it’s mostly gone. Just imagine, 90% of all the vertebrates are either human or domestic animals today. Imagine how little wildlife is left. Since 1970, the IUCN tells us we’ve lost 30% of the animal populations, not species, of the actual numbers of animals, just since 1970, think of… Read More
Today, there are about 400. 200 in zoos and other breeding establishments and 200 again in nature. That’s what can happen and that is what is going to have to happen with many species. Talk about the people who are helping to run a zoo and sometimes a complaint from… Read More