So that’s how I got fascinated by the harpy being in the attraction, the Birds of Prey attraction in Florida and working with the one there. And there were only… By the way, there were only like two, maybe three harpy eagles in zoos in America when I decided to… Read More
No, I had the opportunity. Oh, I was given an honorary doctor’s degree, but I don’t think that was in 1960. I think that was a little bit later after I’d been on Wild Kingdom. But I had an opportunity to go ahead with my graduate degrees. I could have… Read More
Well, I got a little heavy on the adventure (chuckles) and the experience, and didn’t really go back and do the… I could’ve gone back and got a master’s degree, but I didn’t do that. But later on for Earlham College, I got an honorary doctor’s degree. From all those… Read More
This a little booklet was called A-U-K, AUK. And I’d written an article for AUK on the harpy eagle, the first studies of the herp eagles. And one of the producers from The Today Show had heard about me and knew me from that original Zoo Parade Show and also… Read More
And the Today Show saw that story in Life Magazine. That’s where it was. You were doing a lot of things. You were here were there. Read More
In 1960, you went back to school for a graduate degree?… Read More
Did you approach them?… Read More
How did you get that initial, Today Show a big deal. Read More
How did you initially get there?… Read More
It was a big deal. Well, I was introduced to some of them when they came down to do Zoo Parade, and some of those people knew some people on the Today Show. But also when Dave Galloway, when I was at this Birds of Prey attraction, I think I… Read More
Had you ever thought about wanting to work in a zoo or become the head of the zoo at that time or was that?… Read More
I never thought of that. I didn’t need a lot of money. I never went after financial rewards. I was more or less able to do things that I really enjoyed doing. And I didn’t think of going… I was fascinated by the zoological world, but I never really saw… Read More
Did they approach you?… Read More
Normally, if something’s gonna come at you, you kneel down, so your trajectory is flat, but if you’re standing up you have to point your gun at a point on the ground in front of the animal that’s gonna kill you. That’s hard to do. So he missed the lion,… Read More
But you see in those days it was some people say, oh, you wouldn’t shoot a lion. Those days the lines were vermin in this area, Barotseland cause they were killing some of the humans and cattle and everything like that. So anyway, I shot the lion and I was… Read More
They were very secretive. They came over and were watching me, this eagle coming back and landing on my fist and they became intrigued ’cause they’d never seen anybody who could take an eagle and go out and hunt with it. I was hunting jackals. And so they invited me… Read More
Did you ever– Yeah, it was not really a sanctuary. It was attraction. It was like a theme park. Yeah. Read More
What was your role?… Read More
Well, I was trapping lions and this guy wanted to be the first white hunter to shoot a lion at full charge. And so we had an open compound. It’s quite a story the attempted to live trap lion. We’re lucky we didn’t all get killed. The lion eventually charged… Read More
So you couldn’t see that on your camera. And the lion did 250 feet in three and a half seconds, much faster than anybody ever thought. And the guy missed him, who was gonna shoot him. (laughs) There’s a technical reason he missed the lion. I had told him, I… Read More