This book belongs in all of our libraries!!!

Awesome, I'll be looking forward to it. It'll be interesting to hear what you have to say about my beloved Phoenix Zoo.

 

@ANyhuis: thanks for the information! You and Jon will be discussing some of the best zoos in North America in the radio interview, and I'll probably listen in to hear the praise.

 

Cool, I can't wait for the interview!

 

Thanks Allen for putting that up there. I really enjoyed listening to you both and felt that the two of you do zoos a great service. I'm glad to hear Albuquerque's still moving forward with the Tassie devils as well. I loved the story about the elephant and the woman.

 

Thanks, Ituri. It was a really fun interview to do. I hope we not only sold a few books, but also encouraged a few more people to get out and go to the Zoo. In addition, I hope we helped the LA Zoo with their elephant exhibit battle.

 

I wanted to listen to you guy, but I had class today. Can I ask what you said about the LA zoo?

 

Will we be able to listen to it on your website. Last night I was listening to your other interviews and I loved them, so I hope you post this interview!

 

First, thanks BlackRhino -- I'm sure The Big Blend Magazine will soon put an archived version of our interview today on their website. When they do, we'll post a link on our website.

We talked about the LA Zoo elephant controversy for about 2-3 minutes, and we were 100% supportive of the Zoo. I pointed out (as I've done many times on ZooChat) that these "animal rights groups" ultimate goal is to shut down ALL zoos. Jon talked about how they complain that Billy is alone, but then he pointed out that out in the wild, many bull elephants live solitary lives. We said that we believe the Zoo's new exhibit will be excellent and we encouraged any LA area listeners to contact their City Council members to encourage them to support the Zoo.

When Jon told them that he has actually worked with elephants in a Zoo (here in Indianapolis), they asked him about his experiences and about how intelligent elephants are. Jon told a story of how one of the Indy elephants could tell that a female human visitor was newly pregnant -- even before the woman herself knew it. But the elephant could tell!

 

Thanks!!! Right now the LA zoo needs all the help it can get. I've been emailing like crazy the past couple of days, and won't stop until I'm sure the exhibit will be built.

How did the keepers (or whoever) know that the elephant knew about the pregnancy?

 

I can't say publically, but we are involved personally with helping the Zoo in this struggle! As for Jon's elephant story, I don't remember how exactly the elephant knew. I'll ask him -- or you can hear the story yourself soon, once we get the link up.

 

Allen you have the link up, under upcoming events. You just click on where it says Vacation Station and it takes you to where you can listen to it. I listened to it, and it was your best interview yet!

 

Wow, thanks. I thought it only worked for listening Live.

 

I finally sat down with the book. What an accomplishment! You guys gave such detailed reviews without judging any zoos. I can't imagine how you remained so even-handed. I hope the book is selling well.

 

Thanks! It's selling well, though not as well as we'd like. There are still some zoos whose gift shops aren't selling our books yet. If anyone out there wants to ask for our book, that would help.

As for "not judging" zoos and exhibits, that's not entirely true. Whenever there was an exhibit we didn't especially like, we'd describe it very matter-of-factly, without any positive (or negative) adjectives. You can see some of these in the "Other Exhibits" sections of each zoo review. We felt the need to avoid negative descriptions because we truly needed to work directly with the zoos, gathering both information and photos.

 

heh heh, I could see that some things impressed you and others didn't. But I did not see any instances of "this miserable attempt at an orang exhibit is an unfortunate waste of space," or the like. I could never be so even toned! And I think it's good that you did what you did. After my years at the Bronx Zoo I had, shall we say, strong opinions about what a zoo "ought" to be. But as I visit zoos and watch visitors, I have softened. If this family is having such a good time, who am I to say that they're mistaken? A guide is not the same as a critique, after all.
I would expect the audience for the book is limited, but I can't think of a better guide to US zoos (until it gets out-of-date, of course).

 

... but even then, it's a great read! I have both of Allen's zoo books, and have found it very interesting reading the "then" and "now" reviews. It's very interesting seeing what changed (and what stayed the same).

 

I posted this elsewhere, but I thought you might be interested here too:

Keep Billy the Elephant in Los Angeles

 

I saw a keeper at Zoo Boise reading this book yesterday.

 

Cool! Thanks, Ituri! (I hope he/she wasn't neglecting the animals. I'd hate to be responsible for that! LOL!)

 

Another Radio Interview

In case any of you are interested, I'm doing another radio interview this coming Saturday (April 25) on WBT, Charlotte, North Carolina. But to listen, you'll have to get up early -- at 6:50AM, EDT. You can listen live at: News-Talk 1110 WBT | Live Stream

Of course I'll be promoting our book, but also promoting Zoos, especially as tourist attractions.