![]() 31, 1969, it reached an all-time high of 1,126 species and subspecies of birds (and 3,465 specimens). And it stayed that way through the rest of the 1960's. During 1965, the number of bird tax a at the San Diego Zoo went over a thousand. Up to that day, there were things that puzzled and concerned me, abut for which I had no explanation. But that conversation left me far wiser, if sadder. ![]() Thirty years later, I found Art found this experience somewhat alarming. For the next hour at least, I asked questions. It quickly developed that the article these pictures would illustrate would be written by the man holding up a reflector made from foil-wrapped cardboard, San Diego's brand new Assistant Curator of Birds. He was photographing all the zoo's vultures. I, of course, wanted to know what his next ZooNooz project would be. Ron was standing in front of the great community aviary for birds of prey. So, when on the last of my several day's visit, I recognized Ron Gordan Garrison, the long-time photographer of the Zoological Society, I was delighted. I impatiently anticipated the arrival of each month's ZooNooz, the Zoological Society of San Diego's magazine, and spent any time I could reading back issues in the library of the San Francisco Zoo and the California Academy of Sciences. The year before, I got to make four separate visits from Berkeley, and the second of my 1974 visits lasted several days, thanks to family friends. When I was 14, I was obsessed with the San Diego Zoo the way other kids were with sports teams or rock bands. This was appropriate for a man who was in the forefront among a generation of bird curators who completely reshaped American zoo aviculture in the '70s and '80s. from UC Davis in 1970, he collected mammals in Namibia for the Smithsonian Institution and studied the hosts for scrub typhus in Pakistan, for the University of Maryland's School of Medicine.Įven though my perceptions at our first meeting were somewhat distorted, as I was 14 years old, Art's trademark game-showhost-good-looks, with his perfectly styled head of carroty hair and famous "1,000-Watt grin," coupled with a boyish enthusiasm and sometimes startling sense of humor, certainly conveyed youthfulness. He earned his Master's in Wildlife Management from the University of Arizona, in 1963, conducting field research on White-nosed Coatis. He was, in fact, 35 when he thus entered the zoo profession, having previously been involved in mammalogy. When I first met him, shortly after his arrival at the San Diego Zoo, as Assistant Curator of Birds, in 1974, I thought he was in his late twenties. I think most of us thought he was far younger. But many of his saddened friends were also startled to learn he was 70. Art Risser's death following a stroke on the day after Christmas 2008, was entirely unexpected.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |