Crab Cake Row: The masterplan of The Maryland Zoo with Kirby Fowler, Shannon Brown and Bill Cole

Crab Cake Row: The masterplan of The Maryland Zoo with Kirby Fowler, Shannon Brown and Bill Cole on “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl” at State Fare in Catonsville for The Maryland Food Bank.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

animals, zoo, people, penguins, kirby, zoos, years, wild, maryland, nestor, habitats, stay, crab cake, gibbons, events, otter, seafood, bill, part, talk

SPEAKERS

Kirby Fowler, Bill Cole, Nestor J. Aparicio, Shannon Brown

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home we are in Kingsville I’m Nestor we are at wn st am 5070 And we were Towson Baltimore but today we’re Catonsville we’re west side we’re doing the Maryland Food Bank A cup of Super Bowl 10 times the cash Maryland lottery one for you bill call one for you one for you None for me because I’m an eligible but you can come get them I’ve got I’ve got a whole other book of these Bill Ross gave me like hundreds of these book called joins us now for Call Roofing and Gordian energy also our sponsors long winter nation Rascon globally sunning himself in Hawaii right now. And our friends, if you do multi care, you usually join me on Wednesdays, we fought a little bit last week, didn’t we? A little bit. You

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Bill Cole  00:43

haven’t got a little bit feedback on that. But you know, the two or three people are forced listen to it. So yeah,

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:49

a patriotism debate. And if you just if I brought it up three different times, I sort of feel bad that it went that direction, but I love you

Bill Cole  00:58

argument. But the actual conversation about the ownership change of the Orioles seems to be very positive. That’s all the all the feedback I’m getting is that Oh, nobody

Nestor J. Aparicio  01:07

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remembered the bad parts this good parts? Correct. I love that. Yep. Just remember the good things I did. It’s

Bill Cole  01:14

gonna be good. It’s gonna be good. The Maryland Zoo used to

Nestor J. Aparicio  01:18

be Baltimore Zoo. I’ve been going there my whole life. It’s no secret that when my wife had cancer 10 years ago, the man who saved her life was obsessed with penguins, West African penguins. I then found out that we have the largest collection of West African penguins anywhere outside of West Africa. And the next thing I know, we’re zoo people. And you know, I’ve seen Moran’s eye brood at the zoo, a booth at the zoo, booth and brew news. And Kirby Fowler used to do things in the city and do good things. You’re bringing people together. And somehow, like Hutchinson, they retired you up there with all the animals to lord over them and make sure they stay safe and Drupal Park. So I’ve done St. Francis Neighborhood Center this week, certain things in your neighborhood. So I’ve partnered with them. How are you? Fine. How are you doing? All right, we got bills here we get all sorts of people introduction. I don’t know her role. Sure.

Kirby Fowler  02:09

Sure. We have Shannon Brown, who’s our vice president strategy and development.

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Nestor J. Aparicio  02:12

Vice proud. I’m that from my company to Yeah, yeah. But I want that title.

Shannon Brown  02:18

Well, it’s really alluring. I don’t know that you want it.

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:23

For the zoo, you guys have done a great job of trying to get people out. And it’s sort of the one and only and every time I go I’m like, I didn’t know they had that. You know, like, I think it’s something that you tried to build on that if you haven’t been in a while you go and you’re like, Oh, look at what they did here. And Bill, you would say that’s because of people like you know, businesses and people that contribute and people come out people that are part of it. It is it’s a part of civic pride, the Maryland Zoo.

Bill Cole  02:47

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Yeah, I think if anything, if we can focus this conversation Ness, it’s about the future. And the exciting future that that Kirby is forming at the zoo. We know. We don’t know that, you know, I don’t I don’t know how people interact with things that don’t necessarily have this projection of what it’s going to become like we love this we’re going here. And I mean, that’s the story that we want to tell today. Because

Kirby Fowler  03:17

as I mentioned something pretty amazing. Anything you want to call is on our board of directors board of trustees, one of our great leaders I trust it’s so so wonderful to have his experience and also his dedication so just got to start off with

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:32

the last time I had you when we were making crabcakes Atlantico they’re delicious by the way they’re different. They don’t taste just like a crab cake they taste it won’t not you will not finish it you’ll start it you’ll be like oh that’s weird. You’ll put that right there it’s really weird. It was very good that’s pretty good. And then the next thing you know you’re like oh, it wasn’t a crab cake but it kind of had it kind of satiated me especially if you’re shellfish and toddler I mean the texture

Bill Cole  03:57

but it’s not a crab cake right?

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Kirby Fowler  03:59

No okay no and

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:01

I don’t even know what it’s made up to be right if some vegetable that I’ve never heard of any I left it I literally will have to go back and watch

Kirby Fowler  04:11

impossible crab

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:16

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Alright, so I did a vegan crab cake with John shields the legendary John shields who’s my relative by the way at gertrudes and his was made of zucchini. This was not zucchini but it almost crunched like it had chosen like in a weird like in a good way like with that authenticity that you want. What’s going on with Shannon at the zoo that I do we still doing bro with the zoo? Yeah,

Shannon Brown  04:40

we do tons of stuff. So birth is is our largest single fundraiser of the year, which always takes place Memorial Day weekend. It’s two days six bands at different drinks on top. So that’s a huge fundraiser for us. But we have tons of little things throughout the year. Actually this weekend we have to Flamingo events. So it’s a gallon tines day drag brunch and so there’s one Live drag performances. Lots of animals demoed. He

Nestor J. Aparicio  05:02

promoted this on the show last week. They told me about gallon time it’s incredible. Yeah somebody last week on the show mentioned gallons are talking about what he uses that term that’s your term right?

Shannon Brown  05:15

I stole it from Parks and Rec if I’m going to be honest.

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Nestor J. Aparicio  05:20

This somebody that knew you told me to Kirby was that’s okay. But anyway, you’re here. Yeah.

Shannon Brown  05:24

So we were having that which is we started this about oh, thank you. Yeah,

Nestor J. Aparicio  05:29

sure. Sounds good. build us up breathing into his mind so I’m gonna have that okay, breathe

Shannon Brown  05:41

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actually on Valentine’s day next week, we’re

Nestor J. Aparicio  05:46

wrong holiday sorry about that the heavy breathing the killer

Shannon Brown  05:52

but we don’t need you to make Valentine’s noises That was funny. But so next week on Valentine’s Day, we’re hosting an event called sex at the zoo and it’s an evening for adults but it is cocktails, lots of heavy wellness participating in this we are working to participate with carrier wellness but not for sex. It was

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:12

Wendy that brought this up because I talked to her about the product. Oh, ah, that is a all sorts of bomb lotions. But it’s an aphrodisiac oil we she made, like Wendy said wasn’t an uncomfortable conversation. She said that people come in their cannabis shop. They’re more likely to talk about like, really gross stomach things or trying to remember sleep than they are but like she’s got this problem. I thought it might have been her

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Kirby Fowler  06:36

bringing you on. We do know we know.

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:40

Like now my mind is like gambling. And sex and love

Shannon Brown  06:44

and marketing is working. That’s what I’m hearing one

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:47

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of the really neat nights of my marriage. My wife will tell you this. We don’t even all the world had romances though. One night I heard about a thing at your I know your partner rival at the aquarium right? The aquarium did a love night on Valentine’s night when I got wind of it like three days before, you know I lived at the harvest. And I told her I’m doing something good now. We want to meet you for dinner. Anyone know that romantic. And then on the way back. I’m like, we’re going into the aquarium and we walked in. And it was literally an evening of chocolate and wine and sort of the meeting characteristics to the animals. And I was like, Wow, this was kind of cool. You know, anybody could do a candlelight dinner at the Beaumont you know with it. But doing some Yeah, animals. That’s kind of cool and bizarre stories. Well, and

Shannon Brown  07:33

our whole goal is to, you know a lot of people in in a way that is really interesting and makes them want to come through the gates but then we’re education and conservation at our core. So sex at the zoo. We’ll have an incredible presentation on animal courtship and mating. Am radio. Yes. But yeah, so we’re always looking for compelling ways to get people in we have a St. Patrick’s Day festival coming up in a few weeks a glow in the dark egg hunt for adults later that month. So tons of stuff. Oh,

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:59

good to say glow in the dark. Wow. No,

Shannon Brown  08:02

no, we’re not so commonplace.

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Bill Cole  08:07

So one of the important things is we need people to then come ask questions. Right? What? website what is that? The website

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:21

you know, I’ve admitted I’ve cried a couple times, but I’ve admitted that like I never had a light bright as a boy. This this week. I’m thinking of things that you know, like I didn’t never got to do and never got to do easter egg when I was a kid. So maybe this is my chair. Yeah. What is this.

Shannon Brown  08:38

So we have an egg hunt that takes place throughout the campus. It’s in the evening. So the eggs do actually glow in the dark and the the eggs, there’s 1000s of them. There’s either a price slip in there that you will redeem for a prize and it’s cool stuff. There’s concert tickets, there’s like Stanley Cups and all the things that but we work with local companies and nonprofits to get things donated. And so there’s over 100 prizes that day. So but you actually hunt for the eggs throughout the zoo. So you get to see some of the animal exhibits some animals will be out it’s late so not a lot of don’t buy the tickets to see the animals. We will have our

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:10

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wife finds out about this. She is a hunter and gatherer she she will be there after dark she will do everything she’d do to get 90 These eggs. And next thing you know, we’ll be on some trip once a boat or something. Yeah,

Shannon Brown  09:20

and the Tickets are affordable. It’s like 35 bucks. And it serves as a fundraiser for the zoo. So it’s lots of fun. Tickets are limited. We sell at a at 500 And I think we’re already halfway there. And we just launched last week skeletons things outside of the zoo in February. So Ballantine’s is indoors but a glow will be outdoors and that’s at the end of March. We

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:38

don’t be worse many animals. I mean, you can be you can make it a couple hours but a jacket on. It’s been a little more mild around here. How are you making me? Want to talk to you you were new at the zoo. What’s the newsroom review?

Kirby Fowler  09:52

Yes, I remember that.

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Nestor J. Aparicio  09:54

Fred Yeah, he’s like what the hell, Henrietta Henrietta’s About ready to Yeah. And then Charlie Charlie was the owl Freddy was the frog frog. Right? Exactly. It’s

Kirby Fowler  10:09

okay. Everybody, everybody, everybody.

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:13

drugs in the 70s and creative people. Yeah, it was. They were people in suits in the 70s teaching kids like electrical after high school specials. It’s the Newzoo review. It was

Kirby Fowler  10:27

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died out, but I’m not seeing it with me. Show. Right. I didn’t prepare for this. Right. But I noticed you were word for word. I’ll work on that. Anyway. So this new new anymore. So actually, I’m about to hit my fourth fourth year. Yeah. April close. Yeah. So four years in. But during that time period, we’ve been able to launch this new master plan. Can I talk about that for a moment? It’s great. Some great stuff involved

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:57

penguins.

Kirby Fowler  10:59

Summit. Well, ours always involves penguins, right? involves payments. By the way, aren’t you? The guy who taught me about that Dundalk mile east point had penguins in it. That is correct. I bet they did talk to the penguins are critical test. Okay. They

Nestor J. Aparicio  11:12

were critical to eastpoint Mall. I don’t know who took care of that. It’s the part that weirds me out. Who cared for penguins in 1972. In Dundalk, that worries me because I know the people who care. Well, I know you and I knew Don and I know zoos. And I watched the channel with the Cincinnati. Hippopotamus that is that everybody wants to go see, right, Fiona? Right? Yeah, I see. But I those, those TV shows do an unbelievable job. But the amount of love science care, caregiving relationships between caregivers and animals, all the stuff you go to SeaWorld once and you’d like to, you know, how do they make them do that? Well, like there’s a whole team of people to get up every day to keep these animals alive and well. So we can go out there and look them up. In addition,

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Kirby Fowler  11:55

the work they do here, they can take to the actual locations where wild penguins exist. So we actually are the key partners in South Africa, in a wild location, trying to make sure the populations of penguins continue to exist, there has been such a drop sadly, over the past several years, we’ve seen pictures before and after the same rock that had tons of penguins, just four or five years ago, it’s down to big we don’t know, we do water temperature, we believe? Well, we believe it’s partly water, temperature, but also competition for food. So the larger fish who used to be able to more seafood up here are starting to head south and compete with the penguins for food. Good. Sorry, go ahead. And

Shannon Brown  12:34

we’re overfishing our coastlines. So that’s a huge part of it. They have nothing to eat, they don’t have enough to eat. So when you’re deciding what seafood to eat, you need to be responsible and look at sustainable seafoods. And like groups like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, have Seafood Watch, and you can learn pretty much exactly where your seafood is coming from and make an informed decision. Because the decisions where we’re spending money, what we’re putting in our mouths, it does impact the world around us greatly.

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:01

But I this is a new thing for me. So I’m glad you’re telling me and

Kirby Fowler  13:04

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we just started a new center in Namibia as well, to help penguins in the wild was my

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:08

wife and the man who saved her life. When we got his bucket list. We first met him, they both was important that they did a safari in Africa. So I think that’s sort of the next frontier for her like that’s going to be her next. She would love that. That’s gonna be your next I want to do Northern Lights. So I’ll stay and watch the cat they’ll probably come back with pictures of the Big Five and do all that but they’re gonna go find penguins in Africa. That’s going to happen. Good. I

Kirby Fowler  13:32

did my first safari last August. It’s something you got to do. I want to see the northern lights as well but I was blown away by this.

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:38

You just want to get out of Bel Air right basically, for something other than a roof.

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Bill Cole  13:43

I’m actually fairly content I’m kind of okay with that.

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:48

You don’t want to go on safari?

Bill Cole  13:51

Not in the immediate Food Channel.

Nestor J. Aparicio  13:52

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The beach maybe one shade of brown is here. Kirby Fowler’s you’re by the way, how many Kirby’s Do you meet in any given year day?

Kirby Fowler  14:03

Outside my family?

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:07

I get you confused with the other bill Cole he got pissed at me the other day because I shared that Patriot thing you and I did he got blamed for it? You keep sharing it all Bill Cole and nice so anyway, how many Kirby’s

Kirby Fowler  14:17

in my family a few but outside of that not many there’s

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Nestor J. Aparicio  14:21

a Kirby right over there. Curfews manager here to stay away yeah as Kirby I was gonna bring you on together then you brought Shannon that bill I don’t have a microphone for money just like fixing Denton seems like

Kirby Fowler  14:33

there was Kirby here. Yes, maybe later. Me

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:37

to Kirby was a female Kirby. He said but not Melkor. I

Kirby Fowler  14:41

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know if you look, Kirby, who took my Twitter feed before he got it. She got what I wanted. There is free

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:46

SEO in the world. And when I first went on Facebook is a guy in upstate New York. And his name’s Nestor Aparicio in mind, Nestor J. You know, so? I don’t think he had a different initial the way he put himself up so he started getting my feet like 10 years ago, and he’s a maniac, like he’s just sports crazy issue, and people think it’s me. Yeah. And it wasn’t like a stupid, real dude. And I’m like, Dude, I don’t know you and I’ll be friends with you. But you cannot impersonate me now with thumb sports comments on my Facebook page. But no offense to this curve. I have other people to do that not named me that will fake being, you know, this is a curvy fit, but no offense,

Kirby Fowler  15:23

but I want to be the only curvy route. So well, either.

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:30

A curvy salary would tell me what you used to do, and how that helps you do what you do? Yeah.

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Kirby Fowler  15:35

So for 16 years, I was at the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore. And in some ways, there’s so much overlap, first of all nonprofit management. So that’s clearly what I can take to the zoo, the connections he talked about before, but just the love of creating a destination in downtown Baltimore had to create a destination and invite people in, in some ways, it’s so much similar to a zoo, you want to invite people in, have a quality experience for them and keep on building keep on doing new things. So that’s why we have some new habitats that we’re planning under our master plan.

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:04

Master Plan, hold on. So we’re resetting Buccos master plan we

Bill Cole  16:10

need to get to the master. It’s gonna be quick about the future. Yes. Really exciting.

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:14

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Why would the master plan be important?

Shannon Brown  16:17

When you need a guiding principle that is like, oh, sorry, you

Bill Cole  16:20

guys give me the test. I think what it is, is it sets the direction and it gets everyone aligned. And then we have something far off in the distance that we’re working towards the

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:30

leadership part of our programming. So anyway, Master Plinko. Board. Yes.

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Kirby Fowler  16:34

So our predecessors of this, first of all, we’ve been around for almost 150 years. But over the past 20 years, 30 years, we’ve evolved in such a positive way to move animals out of these small habitats that people still recall from main Valley, and much better habitats, much more open. Cage, yes. While cage, San

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:53

Diego Zoo in the early 80s. It was like the first moat, you know, you literally could get a picture of the animal without like a cage in the way. And it looked like I went to Africa, because it looked that way, right.

Kirby Fowler  17:03

It’s like our penguin coast, exactly like a penguin coast. But we need to bring back main valleys. The first part of the zoo is the first 30% of the zoo. And it’s been shut down for 20 years, we need to bring that back. It went to 2004 is when the main Valley stopped being a destination at our zoo. So we’re going to bring that back. So when people enter the zoo, they’ll be able to experience animals right away. Animals like Gibbons. Stellar sea eagles, which was a beautiful predator Eagles from I think were Siberia.

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:32

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going there to see him I’m going to get exactly but

Kirby Fowler  17:35

Gibbons are these incredible, lesser apes is a terrible term lesser apes. But they’re, they have this amazing call that can be heard for two miles, distance they they can swing from the vines. And we’re trying to create the same type of dynamic experience where there’s no mass, no caging. And there’s a moat because Gibbons can’t swim. So we’re gonna create a little moat, it will have that immersive experience. The minute you walk into the zoo, something shock

Nestor J. Aparicio  17:58

and awe the minute you walk

Shannon Brown  18:00

in, you’ve got to have that you’ve got to have you here before you walk through the gates background in

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Nestor J. Aparicio  18:04

zoos. And I would think the only way to I don’t know, maybe it’s wrong, because I don’t sit around listen to sports radio to figure out how to be good at it. But if I, if I took your job four years ago, and Hutchinson say, Hey, you’re the guy. Do this. I’d be like, let me go to 100 zoos and figure out what they’re doing. Because I’ve only been to, you know, a handful of zoos. I don’t know what they do in other places, right? I don’t go to the other zoos. But I do see on TV Bronx, you had to stay in Cincinnati thing San Diego, I’ve been to the wild animal park out there 35 years ago. And now I see what it looks like now on television. And either. That’s not a wonderful thing for letting people see what goes on. But how do you know that? You want shock? And what are they? If I go to the Bronx Zoo, when I have the front door, you know? Well, I

Shannon Brown  18:45

think in terms of figuring out what people want, we try to do a really proactive approach of asking. So we do lots of surveys for our guests, our members, event participants. So we ask, but we also do have incredible partners within the ACA community who have either been established a little bit longer than us or have events, the Association of Zoos, sorry. Yeah. So we have some really great examples. But we also through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a cohort of professionals who are all working to kind of identify best practices that our keepers bring back to us. Those of us in the administrative side bring back so my background is in nonprofit fundraising and event production. So I come from with the perspective of revenue generation and different ways to get people in the gates so that’s my my background, but I’m gonna

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:27

shock at all though that’s guiding attention. You know, yeah, you’ve seen the animals once but you need to come back and see him again what dictates that you do an exhibit I mean, obviously money this that but with getting obtaining the animals, the care for the animals are all special and different and what they eat and all of that. When you say we’re going to have this new exhibit, where did the soup to nuts where those animals come from, and how do we get them here?

Kirby Fowler  19:51

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Great question. So first of all, just that habitat design, we’re starting to invite our animal teams into the discussion so early on, you know how to design the habitat. And for the keepers as well as the animals, but in terms of where the animals come from, so we mentioned the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, were a part of this accreditation group. And we get if we get the credited as we always do, we get blue ribbon, we’re Blue Ribbon zoo, because we’re the best of the best. And we’re part of this great network. And we all share data on animals and this thing called species survival plan. There’s people planning every day on how to swap animals transfer animals within the within the United States and Canada and beyond the benefits of biodiversity ship

Nestor J. Aparicio  20:28

them. And you see what what goes on. I mean, I, I don’t have to ask you about some of this stuff. Because I’m, my wife loves animals, you got Animal Planet, like, you know, I see all of this, but I don’t, the business side of it is, hey, we’re gonna do a new exhibit and like, where do they you know, where do they have a farm for these things? I’ve never heard of these lesser apes.

Shannon Brown  20:47

And the important thing with zoos as a whole, especially accredited facilities, is that the goal for I mean, in a perfect world, zoos wouldn’t exist, right? But there are really big impacts that humans have on the planet. So what we do in the zoo world is essentially to create a population a safeguard for if the animals are facing extinctions in the wild Noah’s Ark. Exactly. Yeah. And so we were in terms of when we’re shifting animals in and out, it can be dependent on the type of team that you have, if we have a team that is really well versed in penguins like which we do, you know, we are considered, you know, a prime candidate to be bringing in penguins. There are facilities all over the country that have those identifiers, but the goal is to be building up the populations of endangered species in the wild in like a break in case of emergency scenario to

Kirby Fowler  21:33

benefit genetics, about diversity. So the gibbons that we would get would be a breeding pair, and hopefully they’ll have offspring, that we could perhaps transfer to other zoos. We don’t import animals from Africa or other countries much we import with we transfer within the United States from others.

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Shannon Brown  21:48

There are instances where like an animal was hurt in the wild that comes in as a rehab and might end up staying because they can’t be released. We have a resident bald eagle, whose name is Vega, who was hurt in the wild, she was showing signs of a neurological just differences and couldn’t fly because she couldn’t judge distances. And so through a partnership with DNR Vega came to us and has worked on rehabilitative work throughout the last several years with us. And now she’s starting to glide and show promise to fly. She’ll never go back in the wild. But so sometimes it can be different. It can be an animal, we have two grizzly bears whose became orphaned a number of years ago, and there’ll be at our facility for bands that were shot hunted. Yeah, man, so yeah,

Nestor J. Aparicio  22:32

me. And all these animals have a story, right? Yeah. I think the one thing that I’ve learned as I watch is you’ll bring an animal in and it has to assimilate much like, you know, the new kid in town like, and there is a pack mentality about all that that much like I have a cat at home. And I’m afraid of bringing a second cat because I’m like, I don’t want to eff this one up. This one’s perfect. You know,

Kirby Fowler  22:56

will they get along, so building on Shannon’s point, so we just worked with the Department national resources to get bring up baby otter who got separated from her mother in Harford County. And so we’re hoping to make sure she didn’t too much interaction with humans because we imprint or they imprint, and they’d become too used to being with humans, unfortunately, what do you heard here? Yeah. So we did our best, our team did our best to keep separate from the honor but she’s still imprinted. So now she’s gonna be part of our collection. We tried to see if other zoos would take her, but they couldn’t. But she’s now part of our collection. So this is that perfect example where we’re helping these animals in the wild, but sometimes they’d have they have to come in for quarantine, and start to connect with the rest of our other otters. So right now we’re trying to make sure does she connect with our male otter? We just brought another female otter in. So how do the three interact? It’s very complicated. The behavior behavior lists on our team, they are thinking about this every single day, how to get these animals to connect, and then

Nestor J. Aparicio  23:55

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mate if you bring a boy and a girl in so that you could have an animal there for the next 20 years. Right?

Shannon Brown  24:01

That’s an interesting point because I mating is a really strategic operation in a zoo. Just because we have a male and a female, there might not be a breeding recommendation, what you don’t want is having what’s deemed it’s my favorite term is like genetically invaluable offspring. So you could have offspring that would actually hurt the larger population of pool and you want to make sure that you’re managing that. So these animals across the country within zoos, the genetics are so closely monitored. We know exactly how many reticulated giraffes there are in the ACA community and you can there’s a stud book so you know where they came from, you know, the family tree. And it’s so critically important horses like Alinea. Know that so that you don’t have these animals that are then overbred and have medical conditions that you have to then treat and so it’s it’s really complex, but super interesting, and I love telling everybody

Nestor J. Aparicio  24:54

where they can learn about all this six and animals stuff because it’s that week, specifically A slightly different thing. Absolutely. I’ll say that too.

Shannon Brown  25:06

We have a really robust web page at Maryland zoo.org. So you can find out everything about our events or conservation programs, which animal habitats that we have on site. Our marketing team does an incredible job keeping our website up to date.

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Nestor J. Aparicio  25:19

And leave anything out, get it all,

Kirby Fowler  25:21

in, remind people that we are a nonprofit, and we are running a state and city owned property. And we need a need support all the time to keep our operations going. Our animals, feed our animals, train our animal, buy tickets, please help us out with this master plan. We’re looking for support. We’re fantastic asset for the entire state. And I think beyond the state, we hope people will come and see what we’re doing.

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:45

A reptile house.

Kirby Fowler  25:47

8

No, it’s it’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  25:50

it’s empty. Yeah, without freaked me out the reptile house.

Kirby Fowler  25:53

We don’t have

Bill Cole  25:55

fundamentally fundamentally droid park in the zoo, or a gym of the city. Right? We lose sight of that we forget it. We’re not there. We don’t go. Like that is That’s my reason, I guess for involvement is a defender of the things that need to be defended. Right, a reminder of the things that we need to be reminded about, that’s that that’s what this is, right? Like Kirby is set. And, like, we didn’t do it justice, to talk about the future and the vision and where it’s going. I mean, they do a magnificent job today. And where we’re going is just gonna blow you away, and people won’t be able to forget where it is. Right? Like, you won’t be able to forget it because it’s so instrumental to the fabric of the city. You know, it’s not in the Inner Harbor, you got to remember where we are, right? Like, it’s

8

Nestor J. Aparicio  26:46

the bus line, even in that way.

Bill Cole  26:50

It’s a piece of the foundation of the city. And if you haven’t been there, you need to get back because it’s just phenomenal. Well,

Nestor J. Aparicio  26:57

we try to get there once a year I saw it you know, full disclosure, but I’m gonna look at the calendar and figure we never have a bad time at the zoo. I mean, what is stolen? I mean, because of the kind of events bless them I was out there my son drinking beer Einsteins and the Amish.

Bill Cole  27:12

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You want to know the secret. This is the secret when it’s like not super cold, but kind of chilly. And it’s raining. Go because the volunteer staff that are there are always there. Okay. And when you go on that day, you get access to them, like no other time, there’s no one else they will tell you everything you ever wanted to imagine or know about those animals

Nestor J. Aparicio  27:41

during the rainy day. You

Bill Cole  27:46

you some of the best days that I’ve ever been there were rainy, chilly days. It just is not crowded. The animals to your point behave defy have

Nestor J. Aparicio  27:56

a memory that fast. I was at the San Diego Wild Animal Park 30 years ago, and they say it never rains and stuff. Like a storm came. There was literally a storm coming. And the giraffes and it was like a wild. It’s just giant. It looks prehistoric. I mean, it’s this giant area. It looks like we’re Fred Flintstone work, you know, looks like a quarry almost. And man I saw like the animals running at what you talk about in Africa. I had a moment 30 years ago during a rainstorm of these animals like freaking out and running. And I was on the little tram on the outside and San Diego and then when I was there one day. So I do have a memory of that. It

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Bill Cole  28:40

is just, you know, fine, go when it’s sunny. I don’t care go both really

Nestor J. Aparicio  28:47

crummy Fowler’s you might you would not be the only kirpy There’s Kirby came over. I love what he’s outdoors. You wouldn’t be in the same room that I haven’t had a whole lot of Nestor Stewart. Yeah, I’m 55 I got like three or four Nestor sightings. And it’s always weird when it happens. So hey, I’m Nestor. We’re doing the crabcake row. A couple of super Paczynski from Super Bowl cup of Super Bowl.

Kirby Fowler  29:12

I’m getting a salad right now. All right, there’s a suit.

Nestor J. Aparicio  29:16

8

Suits delicious. Over there. They got some Maryland crab. The marital lottery puts a steak on 10 times the cash pick appreciation them for giving us all these lottery tickets to give it I gotta walk through the room and just give lottery tickets out for a while. We’re gonna be at Pappas on Friday of nine to five we’re here until five in Kingsville Bilko was supposed to write shocking but here’s the problem dude. You and I talk every week and you invite all these cool guests and you don’t get a word in edgewise. Be okay when it’s over. You say you let me talk.

Bill Cole  29:43

Never complain. If I complain about that. I would never come home with you. So I know I’m okay. I accept it for what it is. It’s good thing there’s a lady here. Good lady you

Nestor J. Aparicio  29:56

know call Shannon Brown and Kirby Fowler’s Baltimore Zoo Maryland Zoo is at Baltimore’s Zoo. I knew I was gonna miss this. Okay, I did that for 40 years, man like, what do you How long have you been the Maryland Zoo? 2007 I did that for 40 years, just like us. 39 Well, I’ve been going all my life you should get out there and especially it’s especially good when beers involved and there’s like friends and music and fun. That’s what I say. Absolutely. You can take your iPod and put your things in and you’d still have and go and go in the rain and think oh Cole Cole Ruffo

Bill Cole  30:29

told me center for hope. Adam Rosenberg’s coming up. We got the sisters Academy when I treat

Nestor J. Aparicio  30:35

this coming up bills like ah stack that Thursday show over state fair. Sandwiches, kind of the food looks great. And I’m getting friggin hungry. Alright, I’m gonna take it back for more. Bring us bring us food bring us canned goods bring us thanks for the Maryland Food Bank. Carmen no question made me cry at nine o’clock this morning here talking about my dad talking about food insecurity and hunger. I’m going to try not to cry anymore. If he’s gonna make me cry today. You know what happened John and Rollo sat here. He went to the other state fair. He went to Tony. He said I’m in somoni where so he came over we did show yourself side but then my our little league teammate heard us talking about our little league experience and showed up and all he’s ever done is work with special needs people so he’s a special human. So I got one extra charity and you got any more charity you want to promote the Maryland Zoo. That’s it. Support the Center for Health. All right, we’re gonna promote more blue cold stuff. Stay with a swirl with your Kaysville State Fair. Goodbye. They have good Bloody Marys here to stay with us.