Well, there weren’t many available, so it took years to find some, and I found a pair that was in the zoo. I think they were perhaps five years old. I thought, okay, that’s pretty good. I probably won’t find some that young anywhere else. So I better grab onto… Read More
We had the first birth in any zoo outside of Africa of the white rhino. I brought in a pair of rhinos. I took years to find just the right pair that I was looking for. And I found the pair that Fred Zeehandelaar, a good old Fred J. Zeehandelaar,… Read More
However, and even Marvin Jones didn’t know this, we had the first birth from the pair that I brought in and what a great day that was for me. I really enjoyed it. I finally did something right. I picked the right age animals from the right dealer and brought… Read More
What was your criteria?… Read More
They sell cattle that way and why not their exotic animals as well?… Read More
You mentioned white rhino. You said, well, there’s a lot of white rhino, but white rhino weren’t all that prevalent years ago. Read More
Did the San Antonio Zoo have white rhino births?… Read More
I think Texas ranching is more attuned to antelope species than there would be to elephants. Rhinos, I think, well, we know that some ranchers have had rhinos on the ranch, but in smaller quarters than what we’re talking about for rhinos and elephants in great numbers. But I don’t… Read More
In Texas there’s a group, the Exotic Wildlife Association, what’s their role and how does their role interface with AZA or (indistinct)?… Read More
The Exotic Wildlife Association as I understand it are concerned with ranching and the keeping of exotics on their ranches. Their whole thought is, let’s get together, have meetings, talk about what we’re doing to keep our animals on the ranch and reproducing them and offering them for sale just… Read More
Would the statement that AZA and Texas zoos ultimately might need each other be appropriate?… Read More
I hope that someday that I hear that in some meeting of AZA. I’d love to hear them finally say what I’ve been saying for years, that we need them and we ought to be using them. But that use means sharing and sharing is the only way it’ll ever… Read More
Is that part of this philosophy of wanting to keep the Texas ranchers at bay or not go to bed with them?… Read More
AZA members, ranching society members. Read More
How does that auction, do you think that’s a barrier between AZA and ranchers working together?… Read More
I think auctions has been a barrier between AZA and ranchers because auctions are something in between. They’re just a place where you buy animals and they don’t care what the horns look like. They might be one going this way and one that way, but they’ll have it in… Read More
They’re just not, no one wants those in great numbers in the zoo. Although they could be quite beautiful, you can’t afford that space for just blackbuck. I never thought I’d ever say that. Such a beautiful animal, that just blackbuck isn’t what I’d want in a zoo. Read More
It would take a lot more money, for example, to build what it would take to keep in elephants and rhinos, but it could be done. Read More
Can you talk a little about, because again, the ranchers and their need to have species and to propagate them, are wildlife auctions necessary for ranchers keeping the exotics?… Read More
Can auctions exist that only admit qualified people?… Read More