Zoo Story (29 page)

  
34
    
“See the big monkey?”:
The author repeatedly witnessed the same exchange between Herman and various moms, with the moms uttering almost exactly the same words every time.

  
34
    
His early life had unfolded:
These sections on Herman’s life and history are based on the author’s observations of the chimp over the years, plus his interviews with Ed and Roger Schultz as well as with multiple members of Lowry Park’s primate staff and other employees, including Angela Belcher, Kevin McKay, David Murphy, Rachel Nelson, Lee Ann Rottman, Andrea Schuch, and Heather Mackin.

  
35
    
“We better move”:
The author observed this scene firsthand.

  
36
    
Enshalla appeared, cloaked in a calm:
These sections on Enshalla and Eric are based on the author’s observations of the two Sumatran tigers between 2003 and 2006, plus interviews with multiple members of Lowry Park’s Asia staff and other keepers and employees who observed and worked with the tigers over the years, including Ged Caddick, Brian Czarnik, Rachel Nelson, Pam Noel, Carie Peterson, and Lee Ann Rottman.

  
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Her favorite was Obsession:
Author interview with Pam Noel.

  
37
    
“wildernesses of freedom”:
Ted Hughes, “The Jaguar.”

  
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peat swamp forests where she belonged:
Tigers of the World
, edited by Ronald L. Tilson and Ulysses S. Seal, p. 86.

  
40
    
“core of the zoo’s conscience”:
Phillip T. Robinson,
Life at the Zoo
, p. 59.

  
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to live with ambivalence:
Author interviews with Brian Czarnik and Carie Peterson.

  
41
    
many keepers had reacted with quiet unease:
Author interviews with multiple members of the Lowry Park staff, including Brian Czarnik, Brian French, Carie Peterson, and Lee Ann Rottman. Some were describing their own ambivalence; others, including French and Rottman, were simply attesting to the ambivalence they had witnessed among others on the staff.

3  NIGHT DELIVERY

  
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Swazi Eleven arrived in America:
This scene is based on author interviews with Brian French, Lee Ann Rottman, Lex Salisbury, and Heather Mackin, all of whom were at the airport and rode in the convoy. Also Kathy Steele, “Elephants Are Slipped into Zoo After Dark,”
Tampa Tribune
, August 23, 2003.

  
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caller threatened to burn down the zoo:
James Steinberg, “Heavy Security Awaited Elephants,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 23, 2003.

  
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police had escorted the trio away in handcuffs:
Author interview with Heather Mackin; Tampa police report 03-359730; Tamara Lush, “Trio of Protesters Arrested at Zoo,”
St. Petersburg Times
, August 15, 2003; Kathy Steele, “Importation of Elephants Protested at Zoos, Embassy,”
Tampa Tribune
, Aug. 15, 2003.

  
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a lead indicating that activists:
Based on an author interview with Larry Killmar and also an FBI memo, written on August 20, 2003, and obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union. The memo is posted online at http://www.aclu.org/spyfiles/jttf/288.pdf.

  
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Lowry Park’s curator:
In the fall of 2003, Rottman was actually the zoo’s acting curator because at that time the previous curator was on extended medical leave. Soon afterward, Rottman was officially named curator. For all intents and purposes, she was already serving in that capacity on the night the elephants arrived from Swaziland.

  
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one of the zoo’s true believers:
Description based on years of the author observing and interviewing Lee Ann Rottman.

  
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as though she were a baboon:
Kari K. Ridge, “I’m just one of the mandrill troop now,”
St. Petersburg Times
, December 23, 1996.

  
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three wallabies had died:
Amy Herdy, “Wallabies Die after Trip in Ryder Truck,”
St. Petersburg Times
, July 2, 2002.

  
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the animal’s trunk dangling underneath:
Murray Fowler,
Restraint and Handling of Wild and Domestic Animals
, pp. 7, 73; also Fowler and Susan Mikota,
Biology, Medicine and Surgery of Elephants
, pp. 86–87.

  
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braced herself for the possibility:
The author observed Lee Ann Rottman discussing these fears during a meeting of Lowry Park’s docents on October 15, 2003.

  
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convoy turned east:
Scene based on author interviews with Lee Ann Rottman, Lex Salisbury, Brian French, and Heather Mackin.

  
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“Learning to read the animals”:
Details from the elephants’ first days at the zoo are based on author interviews with Brian French.

  
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Born into a family of circus performers:
Author interviews with French.

  
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a fatality rate three times that of coal miners:
John Lehnardt, “Elephant Handling: A Problem of Risk Management and Resource Allocation,” the
Journal of the Elephant Managers Association
, 1991.

  
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an Asian elephant killed Char-Lee Torre:
The account of the handler’s death is based on author interviews with the Torre family and Lex Salisbury; also Marty Rosen, “Elephant Kills Young Trainer at Tampa Zoo,”
St. Petersburg Times
, July 31, 1993; and Marty Rosen, “Elephant Had Challenged Her Trainer Before,”
St. Petersburg Times
, August 7, 1993.

  
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elephants were not dominated:
The descriptions of free and protected contact are based on numerous sources, including Eric Scigliano,
Love, War, and Circuses: The Age-Old Relationship Between Elephants and Humans
, pp. 280–286; Fowler and Mikota,
Biology, Medicine, and Surgery of Elephants
, pp. 52–55; “Welfare Implications of Elephant Training,” an article published by the American Veterinary Medicine Association’s Animal Welfare Division; Gary Priest, “Zoo Story,”
Inc.,
October 1, 1994; and Jennifer Orsi and David K. Rogers, “No Rules on Handling Elephants,”
St. Petersburg Times
, July 31, 1993.

  
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“She doesn’t really know how to be an elephant”:
Account of Ellie’s history and behavior based on author interviews with Lowry Park staff, including Brian French, Steve LeFave, and Lee Ann Rottman.

  
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Night-vision cameras:
Description of the elephants’ first days is based on author interviews with Brian French, Steve Lefave, and Lee Ann Rottman.

  
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“Even if a lion could speak”:
Wittgenstein,
Philosophical Investigations
, p. 241.

  
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a lexicon that catalogues:
Based on information from the Web sites of ElephantVoices and of the Elephant Listening Project at Cornell University’s Bioacoustics Research Program.

  
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named by rangers inside Mkhaya and Hlane:
Author interview with Mick Reilly.

4  SIREN SONG

  
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manatees did tussle occasionally:
Jennifer Young Harper and Bruce A. Schulte, “Social Interactions in Captive Female Florida Manatees,”
Zoo Biology
, 2005, pp. 137–139.

  
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“ ‘I wish they didn’t have to be here.’ ”:
Several of Lowry Park’s keepers expressed such ambivalence during interviews with the author.

  
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sixty-four manatees back into the wild:
Posted in Lowry Park’s Florida mammals office in October 2003.

  
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“We take ’em in”:
Author interview with David Murphy.

  
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keepers would drape themselves:
The author witnessed many manatee exams over several years and accompanied the staff on several manatee releases.

  
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newborn calves whose mothers had abandoned them:
These sections on the orphaned manatee calves are based on the author’s interviews with Virginia Edmonds and Lex Salisbury, as well as e-mails from Edmonds, and the author’s firsthand reporting.

  
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the staff dubbed him Buttonwood:
The description of the staff’s attempts to save the calf are based on the author’s interviews and e-mails with Edmonds. Also, Shari Missman Miller, “Newborn Manatee Rescued, Coddled,”
St. Petersburg Times
, May 15, 2003; and Rob Brannon, “Orphaned Manatee Delights Fans,”
St. Petersburg Times
, May 26, 2003.

  
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different combinations of formula and Pedialyte:
“Zoo Puts Foundling Manatee on Display,”
St. Petersburg Times
, May 26, 2003.

  
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hoping she would let him nurse:
“Despite a Couple of Setbacks, Buttonwood Is Getting Better,” Shari Missman Miller,
St. Petersburg Times
, July 6, 2003.

  
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his small gray body floating:
Cory Schouten, “Facing Long Odds, Buttonwood Dies At Zoo,”
St. Petersburg Times
, July 12, 2003.

  
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a second abandoned manatee calf:
Details on Loo’s life and death are based on the author’s interviews with Virginia Edmonds and Lex Salisbury, as well as e-mails from Edmonds. Also, the author saw Loo in one of the medical pools, in between feedings, not long after the calf was brought to the zoo.

  
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faint calls of the adult manatees:
Author interview and e-mail exchange with Dustin Smith, who first told me that the Lowry Park keepers could hear the sounds. Background on the vocalizations was found on a Web site put together by the University of Rhode Island’s Office of Marine Programs in partnership with Marine Acoustics, Inc. The page that describes the vocalizations can be accessed at http://www.dosits.org/gallery/marinemm/31.htm, and it includes an audio clip of a vocalization provided by David Mann at the University of South Florida.

  
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each new wave of visitors:
During his years of reporting at the zoo, the author witnessed these behaviors many times.

  
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an institution custom-made for families:
Sue Carlton, “Renovated Zoo Will Roar with Excitement,”
St. Petersburg Times
, October 18, 1987.

  
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replica of a raccoon dropping:
Lex Salisbury displayed the dropping during a tour he gave the author in October 2003.

  
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“We call him Pee Goat”:
Author interview with Carie Peterson.

  
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The curator and the defiant monkeys:
The author witnessed this scene.

  
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the ultimate troubleshooter:
This description of Lee Ann Rottman’s history and duties is based on the author’s many interviews with Rottman and years of watching her do her job.

  
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a hippo surfaced directly beneath her boyfriend:
Author interview with Rottman.

  
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“He’s very handsome, I think”:
Author witnessed this moment with Rottman and Rango.

  
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“the Berlin boys”:
Based on author interviews with Brian French and Lex Salisbury, also “Inseminating Elephant Takes 2 Germans, an Ultrasound and a Very Long Wait,” by Tom Paulson,
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
, March 2, 2005.

  
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raised the height of Lowry Park’s perimeter fence:
Author learned this while listening to Lee Ann Rottman’s talk in front of the docents in October 2003.

  
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red paint and paint thinner:
Jane Fritsch, “Animal Activists Deface Homes of Dunda’s Keepers,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 15, 1988.

  
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a compelling example:
“On the Brink of Extinction: Saving the Lion Tamarins of Brazil,”
The Encylopedia of Mammals
, pp. 342–343.

  
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none had ever been selected:
Author e-mail exchange with Lex Salisbury.

  
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not even attempt to climb into the trees:
Vicki Croke,
The Modern Ark,
p. 195.

  
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Bornean orangutans were so endangered:
Michael Casey, “Orang-utans on ‘Fast Track to Extinction,’ ”
Independent
, July 6, 2008.

  
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“not all it’s cracked up to be”:
Author interview with Lee Ann Rottman.

5  ROYALTY

  
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Liberia, December 1966:
Account of Herman’s early life and history are based primarily on the author’s interviews with Ed and Roger Schultz. The details of the baby chimp’s purchase, including the thumbprint, are also based on a copy of the original receipt, provided to the author by Ed Schultz.