Director Emeritus, Columbus Zoo


MORNING JACK! WHERE ARE YOU CALLING FROM? I’m in a rainstorm on Caspersen Beach in Florida – it has one of the highest concentrations of sharks’ teeth on the planet! I just got back from three weeks in Gabon shooting eight episodes of Into the Wild. Lowland gorillas and chimps, Mandrills, egg-laying sea turtles, forest elephants – it’s going to be great!


WHEN YOU STARTED AT THE COLUMBUS ZOO, WHAT DID YOU DO TO TURN IT AROUND?


Te key to a good zoo is to make sure your guests have fun and that they leave there having learned something and loving it as a result. If people don’t love something, then they’ll never care to save it. So we started by fixing and cleaning up the Zoo, providing opportunities to make memories like pony rides and great picnic areas, and our keepers began walking around the paths with animals – like parrots and flamingos – and engaging guests head-on with fun facts. Have you ever told your kids, “We’re going to the Zoo today to learn the Latin names of the animals, where they’re from, how old they are, what they do, and we’ll take a test on it when we get home?” Of course not – so it wasn’t about making textbooks out of the signage, it was about having fun with your family in a safe place.


WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON THE BALANCE OF EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT AT ZOOS?


Look, we’re in the business of conservation – everyone preaches conservation, but the first thing you need is education. Educating people means that they’ll understand conservation, and that often means a heavy dose of entertainment to draw them into the lesson. Once they understand conservation, then they care about the issues, provide the resources for zoos to fund their research and conservation efforts (like Columbus Zoo’s 62 annual, global projects), which cycle back into making better education and entertainment – it’s a full circle.


A long time ago, our state funding got cut. We had to create things to stay alive and thrive, so we added all sorts of programs – Te Wilds (the largest conservation site in the country), rides, food, photo opportunities, company parties, Christmas lights, weddings, car shows, pet adoptions, zip lines, camps, horseback riding, tours, and Zoombezi Bay – we’re the only zoo in the world with a waterpark. We had more than two million visitors last year – and Columbus, OH isn’t Orlando, Los Angeles, or New York! I promise you, the zoo world will be the answer to helping animals in the wild.


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