Hey Zooplantman!

Dan

Dan

Well-Known Member
Hey Zooplantman!

I think most of us here at ZooChat would be very interested if you presented us with an extensive text about your professional life and experiences. An "illustrated and extended CV", so to say! You have worked at Bronx Zoo an is now an independent zoo landscape designer? You must have lots of storys to tell!

And not only Zooplantman - all you other professionals here, as well. There are a few of you!

Most of us amateurs here envy you your professions. Feel free to share anything with us, your CV:s, your everyday working day, anything... Tell us your story! How did it start, how has your profession and your career evolved over the years, what are your thoughts about the future?

Like I said: most of us amateurs would highly appreciate this - AM I RIGHT OR AM I WRONG?!! Come on, everybody! Tell me that you too want to hear the pros tell their storys!

Who will be the first of the pros? Zooplantman?
 
Like I said: most of us amateurs would highly appreciate this - AM I RIGHT OR AM I WRONG?!! Come on, everybody! Tell me that you too want to hear the pros tell their storys!

Who will be the first of the pros? Zooplantman?[/QUOTE]

You may find that some of the "Pro's" may want to stay undercover ;)
 
You are most certainly right, Dan. I would also be very interested to hear "the pros" tell their stories. I am especially interested in exhibit design and often spend my spare time designing imaginary exhibits of my own so i would be interested to hear how it is done in real life.
 
redpanda said:
You are most certainly right, Dan. I would also be very interested to hear "the pros" tell their stories. I am especially interested in exhibit design and often spend my spare time designing imaginary exhibits of my own so i would be interested to hear how it is done in real life.
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Aha! Tell you a secret: I have hundreds of paper sheets showing imaginary and in my mind perfectly designed zoo enclosures (money being no object...). We seem to share a common hobby.;)
 
By the way, redpanda. Have you checked out all the interesting links to zoo landscaping design at Zoolex? Lots of interesting stuff to be found!
 
Leave those people alone, they'll share their info when they feel like it :p

You do know how to make people "special" though, perhaps they are sensitive to flattery...
 
Ah, but jwer, my suggestion was written in all honesty and was not at all intended as flattery. Like I write in my introduction to ZooChat, if I could re-live my life, I would have tried to become a zookeeper (or any other profession related to zoos, for that matter).

I would be genuinly interested to read the stories of the professional´s careers, their experiences etc.
 
Dan said:
By the way, redpanda. Have you checked out all the interesting links to zoo landscaping design at Zoolex? Lots of interesting stuff to be found!
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I have indeed. I found the one on rotation particularly interesting and for the past two weeks have been working on a set of rainforest habitats where the animals are rotated on and off show. BTW it's nice to know i'm not the only one who does this - i also redesign exhibits which are built by zoos but try to make them better. I admit that i too have literally hundreds of sheets of paper detailing specific aspects of each enclosure, all carefully annotated and labelled - i really need to get out more!

P.S. On the subject of zoolex, the Orangseum at apenhaul has been uploaded.
 
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Dan said:
Aha! Tell you a secret: I have hundreds of paper sheets showing imaginary and in my mind perfectly designed zoo enclosures (money being no object...). We seem to share a common hobby.;)
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Haven't we all?;) When ever I get a good exhibit idea I just have to write it down/draw it
 
My website is there for any to see...hop on over!

I was trained in horticulture for botanical gardens and came to zoos un-planned. Then after working at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden for 7 years and wanting to take on more responsibility, I realized - walking by the old bear exhibits one day(and bears are not my favorites) - that I would miss being around zoos. So I went to the Bronx Zoo for seven years. Then, after we opened Congo Gorilla Forest, I realized I liked the design process more than figuring out who was going to weed which area and arguing with the union and the management. I loved working at zoos...and I may be one of the very few zoo designers who was ever a zoo staffer! - but any other zoo staffer here will tell you that zoos are little corporations with office politics and egos just like most work places. So now I work with lots of design firms and lots of zoo directors and curators and keepers. I must say, I really love that. So many folks who know so much, each contributing the best they've got. Besides, they treat the consultant much better than they treat employees most of the time :D

The thing is, no one person gets to design the exhibit they want ( except maybe Lee Simmons at Henry Doorly Zoo). Every project is a collaboration and every one is limited by money and space. I've seen so many brilliant ideas arise at the start of a project, only to be dropped along the way. By the time the darn thing opens, it is a pale ghost of what it once "could have been." The collaboration is a bit like our discussions here. A bunch of people who sort of agree soon realize how their ideas really differ and they try to come up with the best compromise they can. In the end, everyone is pleased but no one owns it. And no one says "That's exactly what I wanted it to be."

I marvel at what everyone here knows of zoos...their local ones and ones all over the world. The different points of view and values, all coming together for (mostly) friendly chat is pretty exciting to me! And everyone's amazing pictures in the gallery! I've only seen what I've seen, so it's great to be able to enjoy what you've seen as well. And you are so damn observant!
 
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Thanks Zooplantman, great to hear your story. Interesting with your "double experience" so to speak. Hope the other pros at this site will join in, too.

But what is the adress to your website? I would love to check it out!
 
Oooooh, nice! Thanks! I will certainly check it out in detail! (As will probably most of our dedicated forumsters here.)

Best of luck with your business, Zooplantman!
 
Maybe we should have a gallery on ZooChat comprised of drawings and notes of exhibits envisioned by Dan and everyone else.

I would actually be quite interested to see what some of the non-professionals can come up with!
 
Perhaps even an Amateur Zoo Design Contest? Create the best and most innovative exhibit:)
 
Ah......... my "drawings" mainly consist of "maps" (for lack of a better word - me not being fluent in English) in scale this or that, with lots of notes and blah-blah-blah that nobody but me would understand. I draw up every possible zoo exhibit, but seem to concentrate on the "best possible" male elephant enclosure - being a bit especially concerned about that. I love "designing" the ideal male elephant enclosure.

In short:
If I was Bill Gates I would use my money to create the best zoo ever! The male elephant enclosure would be about six acres big (30 000 m2?). The bull would have an overlook into the herd enclosure. His enclosure would include large fake rocks, so that he would not be able to see his whole enclosure at one glance. The enclosure would be be very irregularily shaped. There would of course be a lot of soft substrate such as sand, there would be a pool and mud baths, lots of logs and other dead fall trees for him to scratch.

I imagine animals from nearby enclosures having the possibility to go into the bull enclosure, but escape back to their own enclosure if the bull gets irritated. The entering of animals from the other enclosures would of course be controlled by the keepers at the the zoo -but I could envisage jackals, hyenas, wart hogs or gazelles being let into the bull enclosure - just as examples. I imagine the bull being enriched by chasing the unwanted visitors away - protecting his territory.

This is an example of ideas behind my "drawings", but scanning them and showing them on ZooChat would make no sense, they are all too "sketchy" and would make no sense to anybody but myself.
 
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Today I was looking at an AZA "Connect" magazine and I saw Zooplantman's ad. At first i was just looking through the magazine, then I saw the same logo Zooplantman uses as his avatar. After that, I saw the name "Zooplantman" and that's when I knew that it was Zooplantman's ad.
 
Zooplantman said:
...but any other zoo staffer here will tell you that zoos are little corporations with office politics and egos just like most work places. So now I work with lots of design firms and lots of zoo directors and curators and keepers. I must say, I really love that. ... Besides, they treat the consultant much better than they treat employees most of the time :D
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Oh man... That's my goal one day. But I don't know if an animal trainer consultant would have a job here in Europe... But I can imagine how cool your job is, setting up stuff, having new ideas...
 
Miguel said:
Oh man... That's my goal one day. But I don't know if an animal trainer consultant would have a job here in Europe... But I can imagine how cool your job is, setting up stuff, having new ideas...
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But there ARE animal enrichment consultants/trainers and the ones I've met are in demand in North America and Asia (at least)
 
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