We had a spitting cobra in the reptile house and a keeper named Jerry McNeal was taking care of the big cages at the time. He was cleaning the spitting cobra. At that time the cages were a large cage with a door in the back and a pool. And… Read More
Henry. I got very fond of that animal. When he graduated from the reptile house and he went to the monkey house and I went to see him often, he always recognized me. He always came by, wanted to lick and interact. Animal handling. Read More
Has it changed from when you started to when you became and progressed during your tenure as director?… Read More
Well I think in animal handling, the concept of hand raising animals and having tame animals was a big thing. And in fact, we hand raised a baby lesser kudu and that female became so tame she tamed on the entire herd. So it really played a role in our… Read More
They were about the same age. And later on, they both erupted a left lower tooth first and then left lower right and then the upper left and the upper right. Same time. Their expressions, their attitudes devolved same time. They started grabbing more with their hands. But when the… Read More
If you look at the skull of a human adult, the brain case is really big and the face is real small. And you look at the great ape, the face is very big and the brain case is very little. So the brain continues to develop as everything else… Read More
And what was that orang’s name?… Read More
I mean I realize you love reptiles. Read More
But was there a unique animal that was a favorite of yours?… Read More
I helped raise a baby orangutan. When you raise a baby animal and watch it develop. In fact, I raised him at the same time we had my youngest son Brad at home. So always watchin’ the facial expression as both of these infants nursed on the bottle. In the… Read More
Do you agree that you have to have a degree to become an animal keeper?… Read More
I don’t necessarily agree with that philosophy, but that’s what the zoo policy is today. They have adopted that policy. Maybe if I were in a management position, I would understand it and agree with it. But I always have a problem. But there are people that are self-educated in… Read More
He waived degree and he told me this. In my case, he wish I had degree, but I didn’t. But he waived it because of my experience and knowledge. And so since I had that benefit, he didn’t have the degree. I would always hope that there was a chance… Read More
In all the years that you’ve worked at the zoo, did you ever have a special favorite animal, individual animal?… Read More
Should they be able to move up the ladder in a sense as you did to potentially become a zoo director or is that avenue less than it was when you started?… Read More
I started at the zoo at a time when the average zookeeper had a fifth or sixth-grade education. That has changed so much today. 95% of the keepers, applicants, people who apply for a job as keeper at St. Louis. 95% have a degree. That degree is so common that… Read More
And emphasis also people who have not only a degree but some experience. And a lot of ’em come in having had an internship or working experience with some animal collection somewhere. And those are the ones that have the most going for ’em. After all, there are only 350… Read More
I think that our docent program and volunteer program. I’m sorry. Our volunteer program at the zoo is so strong. It probably brings in about a couple million dollars of labor a year. The volunteers, I think we have 2,000. They volunteer on a regular basis. They serve a big… Read More
They make the zoo a much friendlier place because of their function. It’s absolutely critical. I think it’s unique to America. Well we had zoo directors visit from Europe. They can’t believe that there are people who will volunteer with enthusiasm and they don’t expect to be paid. It’s a… Read More
Frustrating time as zoo director. Probably. I just can’t think of ’em today anymore. Probably if you had asked me 15 years ago, I could’ve told you all of ’em. The good times far outnumber the bad times, so I only remember the good times. We had talked about management… Read More