Oakland Zoo – Nik Dehejia
#026 – Today we talk with Nik Dehejia, CEO of the Oakland Zoo, which is celebrating its Centennial Anniversary in 2022. The zoo started in June of 1922 at the corner of 19th and Harrison at what is today called Snow Park.
“Imagine in 1922, two lions being brought back into the City of Oakland and out there. Henry Snow was the founder of the Oakland Zoo and established a museum and a zoo in 1922.”
The location moved to Joaquin Miller Park in the 1920s and to its current location in the 500 acre Knowland Park in the 1930s. The 100 acre zoo campus is home to over 850 species. What sets the Oakland Zoo apart from other zoos is that they really value that the animals have enough space to live in a natural habitat. They need to live their best life in this space. They will have less species so they can have more space.
“Animals need to have adequate space. Their habitats have to be complex. They have to be large. They have to have choice & control on how they move around.”
The Oakland Zoo gets over 1 million visitors every year from all over Northern California. Their robust school programs account for about 25% of that. Their educational programs include camps for kids, small ambassador animals that go out to schools, and field trips where school groups come into the zoo. They even purchased a bus that brings school groups to the zoo.
Nik shares with us the diverse backgrounds of the zoo employees and that the zoo is proud to be one of the largest employers of local youth.
“Many young adults are getting their first or second job at the Oakland Zoo.”
Be sure to stick around until the end to hear about how the zoo’ community really stepped up to help the zoo emerge from the Pandemic shutdown bigger and stronger than ever.
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