And that was a hands-off management procedure where elephants are managed without using bull hooks or without using any discipline mentors of any kind but using rewards system to transfer from area to area. Most zoos are practicing there. There are still some that have a hands-on restraint policy, but… Read More
What was AZA, the association like at the time you were president?… Read More
I was the president from 1991. And by that time, I think AZA was well involved with the species survival plans and were much more conservation-oriented than they had been in the past. I felt that the people involved with the board at that time were some of the leaders… Read More
How’d you see your role as president in changing or directing the organization?… Read More
It has live plants. It requires minimal hours of labor and it’s probably the least expensive program we’ve ever had. And there’s no reason why we should give it up because it’s not preventing us from doing anything else. Meanwhile, we established a hellbender breeding program for the state’s endangered… Read More
They have since built two raceways outdoors with refrigerated water. And now for the third year have been successful in hatching captive-bred Ozark hellbenders and are in the process of reintroducing these hellbenders back into the wild. This has been a very costly research program because it involved building very… Read More
If their pollution is contributed to the water quality, they’re making an effort to improve water quality overall so that the environment is improved besides the reintroduction to make hellbenders part of the environment. But that’s a much more costly program that initiated under my rule, but it’s gone way… Read More
That what you’ve just explained involves a fair amount of funding to do this type of thing which is not seen by the public at all where you have one on display. Tuataras as I understand it mature very late in life. They’re long-lived reptiles. The New Zealand government certainly… Read More
Is it worth a zoo’s monetary involvement to the degree St. Louis has done it to put forth that kind of energy in financing and resources and why would you say that’s a good thing that your zoo?… Read More
‘Cause you initiated the program. Right. First of all, we wanted to have a representative collection of reptiles and we have a representative collection of crocodilians, snakes, lizards, turtles, amphibians of every description. And the tuatara alone is in a separate order of its own. And so to be totally… Read More
So the purpose of the two pair was to have a comprehensive collection but also to establish a breeding program. We use an existing room in the reptile house and we used our own staff to create and do the wiring and the electricity. It took very little funding. It… Read More
Ask him. Question about animals just in philosophies. Read More
You at the St. Louis Zoo have had or still have a tuatara exhibit, is that correct?… Read More
We have a tuatara exhibit, but we have off-exhibit two pairs of tuataras in an environmental-controlled room where we maintain a physical environment. The temperature is equivalent to that of Stephens Island in New Zealand where they’re from. We have attempted to breed them in captivity. We have not been… Read More
What is their favorite purposes for their funding and how do you go about approaching ’em?… Read More
You have a staff, a whole staff devoted to that. It’s not just the director’s duty anymore. He’s just one player in the whole role. Most zoos have developed a foundation board or development board that assists in fundraising. Read More
It’s there?… Read More
Well in the beginning, it was a individual effort where a director might call on a donor or a corporation to look for a gift, but it expanded to where the development department with an entire staff devoted to fundraising where the director only played one role in it. Read More
There was a whole department researching where’s the money?… Read More
Who’s giving money away and for what purpose?… Read More