unce a ticket taker, Gene Leo comes home as director of the Washington Park Zoo. byBob Mullin It was the summer of '67. Lyndon Johnsonwas Pres~dent and thc war In Vietnam was heating up - as was the natton'r opposition to it. But Cene Leo, a 17-year-oldsentor at Lincoln High School in Portland, had other things on her mind. HISiuture. Fjrrt, though he st111had another year o i h~ghschool to complete, he srgned up for three classes at Portland State Unweri~ty Next. he acceptcd a summer job as trrket taker at Panland's Wash~ngtonPark Zoo, a lob that pard $1.52 an hour. F~nally, as the summer months wore on. young Gene grew quite well acquainted w~tha particular iemale tjcket seller at the zoo. All three arsaclatlon, - wlth PSU. the zoo, and the trcket seller - would later ~ l a vmaior roles ~n h~ r , , . liie. From Portland SLate. Leo 1'751 earned a bachelor's degree ~n biology which paved the way for a career ~n zw management. That hr; summer jab at the roo lec to others there in future summers and stimulated rnterest ~n the career he pursued at college - a career that reach& a peak lust last Fcbruary when he was named the new d~rector of the Wash~ngtonPark Zoo In h~s hometown. And the iemale ttcket sell~r,whose name war Calla, ultimately berame Leo's wtie, and today the couple has two son$, age5 i n and 8 Something elre that would be Important to Leo was lhapp~n~ng durtng the 'bus - on Sunday aicrnoons ~n I~v~ngroomascrors the natlon. That's when people gath~rec around their televts~on qek to watch Mutual oi Omaha', "Anjmal K~ngdom" - and it was that program. Lm remembers, that ushered In "a whole genre" of wild antmal N shows, shows wh~ch changed the way people looked at an~maltihey had prev~ouslyseen only ~n a zoo. "The public today is so much more acutely aware of an animal', place tn ti environment and how that anfmal doesn't have a bubble around 11,'' says Leo. "That animal has interaction w ~ t hother animals and plants in that env~ronment." Such a revolutton in the public's perceptton ot animals hac had a huge tmpact on the roo policies Lw has adm~n~stereddur~nph, is career. "We've got to take all those thought5 and ideas irom thc iolk~ ~n the comniunltv and put them rnto a brm that we can use," he observes. I At Portl take a iull sen~or ym "l"l?i,,~h (Rob Mulltn rs a freelance writer in Portbnd and a frequent rontrrbolor ro Perrpecfive. HP i( ah0 d Iormer PSU itudenr. J and State, Leo was. load of clasrec duri ir and at the same tli ,u...L.,u. ?. in a management i program at the roo where alredoy ne had ,pent ilve summers acqutrcng "a really broad exper~ence"as a ttcket taker. as a grounds ma~ntenanceman. as a concessionimanager, and as a rel~eaf nlmal keeper. ''I wa, pretty luckv," he recalls. "in that even ar earlv ar mv ireshman year In college I had set my sights on what I wanted to do. One of my liie prlor~tieswas working in a zoo because I just thoroughly loved ~t." The dlverr~tqof the P5U program proved espec~allyhclpiul to Leo. "Aside irom the zoology and blology courses required for my malor." he rays. "I war able to take a lot of publ~chealth and psychology courses lmponant ~n zoo management " Leo later earned a mastcr's degree ~n recreat~onarea management at the Univcrs~tyof W~sconsr Then, as arrl5tant director oi the Vilas Park Zoo ~n Madison, Wisconrrn ior nlnf year5 and as head director ot the Port Deiiance Zoo and Aquar~umi n Tacoma. Washington for iour, he was able to put hrs educatfon to practlcal use, supewtstng the upgrad~ngoi both zoos that resulted tn sharply increased attendanc~and rwmueq. The change was especially dramatic at the Port Dcilance Zoo. whlrh war described as "ln terr~hleshape" when Leo took it over Beiorp he I ~ i tt,he zoo was recogn~zedby the National Humane Sactety as one oi the top fxve zoos ~n the nation ior anfmal management and humanenes. Now 35 years old. Leo looks at h~s acceptance ot th? Portland lob d i comlng home. "It reallv feel, neat to Cene Lea ('75) with penguin and pwplr friends alkmg down the street and run ,omeone I haven't seen ior 15 ," he savr. ?enLeo became zoo director In reoruary, he lnherlted a master plan drawn up in 1183 Hc says he fcels good about thr plan because it reilectq the ktnd oi envtronmental approach to zoo keeping the publtc has learned to want. He potnti to thc newly opened Alaska tundra cxhlb~t ai an example. "We haw placpd wolvel and muskoxen and gr~zzlybears In a very natural env!ronment." he says. "complete with natural rock tormr and natural plant matcrlals and w~th t h k~tnd of space those antmals need to show thelr natural khav~orsT. he animals are benetactonof such an approach because of reduced stress. and in mo%rtases animal "One of my life priorities was working in a zoo because I just thoroughly loved it." management is much easier And the pcople are the kneiactors too because they rome away from that zoo IS a ncw hear exhlh~tabout to open in mld-1986. As pan of that prolcct. a polar-bear~~n~w~nter exhcblt wdl dep~cthe cnv\ronmcntnear Churchill. Msnltoba, on Hudson Bav. "It's about 7 o'clork." ravs Leo wlth a hush ot exrltemcnt In hjr volce. "A5 you approach the inride exh~brt,the tlrst thing vou will notice is it's dark, very logical for tha of year. You will also notice a tempwature 10 to 15 degrees 8 than outslde. As you approack an~malsy. ou'll notlce an auroia boreal~sprolect~don the ceiling and all the walk are a klnd oi wh~te stucco flnlsh that really says tundra and snow and Ice. li you happen to look over your r~ghst houlder, vou'll see the rcpl,ca of a 12-foot polar bear on the wall. "The real maw ~n that exh~bttwill occur as the visitor walks up to the ~nch-and-thre-quarter5-th~ckglar, and comer nose to nose w~thp l a r bear5 ~n the water. Polar bears In the wild rpend about 70% of them tlme in the water, and so that's a srene very i ~ fwolks in the United States ever have an opponunlty to see." Leo says the outdoor polar-kar- tn-summer scene wlll feature a 5tream and pool in a natural Fettlng Future projects include an Airlcan huih erhlblt ior such hookd animals as the hfppor and g~iaiiesthat wtll. ~n the d~rcctor'swords. "carve out a l~nle plcre oi Airica and hr~ng11here to Poitland." Leo also talk, about the need to Improve phys~caland programming a5pecb oi the chlldren'i area. "The challenge I feel a5 a zoo person." he savs. "IS to bring the excitement and maglc oi an~mal adaptatron and learninga h u t that adaptatronto the publ~c.When we place thos? animals ~n a natural environment. tt giver our cot~renra much better icpl far what an anmal's role ~n the envtronment 15, what ktnds o i problemr ~thas to c o p wfth, and t tlme n air cmler I the Continued on page 10 PSU Perspective, Surnrn~r 198j /pa* 5
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz