Dr. Fisher’s Life on the Ark

by Lester E. Fisher, DMV

Contents

Foreword by Betty White	ix

Preface: The zoo gets in your blood	xi

Welcome Doc!	1–2
Childhood, dogs, and an alligator	2
The city boy goes to Iowa to learn about animals	3–4
Learning some pet tricks and a few things more	4
The young animal doctor goes to war . . . sort of	4–6
Wartime, pigeons and Patton’s dog	6–7
Home, a new life, and Lincoln Park Zoo	8–9
Marlin and me	9–10
“Thunder”	10–12
Being a vet	12
Behind the scenes at the zoo, life and death and life	13–15
The learning continues—only bigger	15–16
Open wide, you’re on TV	16–17
The sleeping tiger mystery	22–23
A very good life…now what?	23–24
How life began to change	24–26
America’s “oldest zoo” turns 94 and is showing its age	26–28
Growing the Ark	28–33
The homecoming	33–34
Building a zoo and filling it	34–35
Catching animals	35–36
Collecting animals	36–39
Something for the birds	39–41
Not flying quite so high	41–42
Famous zoo animals I have known: I—Judy the elephant	42–47
Famous zoo animals I have known: II—Mike the polar bear	47–51
Famous zoo animals I have known: III—Bushman, legendary lowland gorilla	51–54
Gorilla gorilla gorilla	54–56
A promise kept	56–57
More gorillas	57–58
And STILL more gorillas	68–70
The trouble with gorillas	70–74
Famous zoo animals I have known: IV—Gino the Dutch lowland gorilla	74–78
Medical mysteries, mishaps, marvels, and other zoo phenomena	78–81
Help is on the way	81–84
Thor, the zoo’s only green polar bear	84–85
The mystery of Pearl the elephant	85–87
The zoo goes on a diet	87–88
Horsemeat, vitamins, cats, and birds	88–90
Longevity	90–91
Go fish	91–92
Mostly monkeys	92–94
A few words about food	95
The gourmet koalas	96–97
Buildings, budgets, and food	97–98
Counting crickets	98–99
Hatari’s story—a young elephant goes west	99–101
The sometimes friendly skies	101–102
The short travel story of the elephant in the middle seat	102–106
Gorilla moving day(s)	106–107
A big move, a new house, some important work, and a great film	107–117
An important TV program with a sad ending	117–118
Sex and the single zoo animal	118–119
Gorillas in love (or something like it)	119–122
Tough love, animal style	122–124
That’s entertainment!	124–126
The doctor on Zoo Parade	126–127
The Ark in the Park—Ray, TV, and me	127–131
Lights! Camera! Animals!	131–132
TV never smelled like this!	132–133
More about TV, radio, and special events	133–138
Great escapes (and some not so great ones too)	138–143
Chasing Sam	143–144
Escape of a great ape	154–156
Escape of ANOTHER great ape	156–159
Possibly my last story about an escaped gorilla	159–161
A bear is loose!	161–163
Princes, Mayors, Jane, Joy, big stars & other memorable zoo visitors	163–169
The Zoo Society Safari to Stan’s Africa	169–173
“Please don’t bring your group back!”	173–175
The chief, Stan and the lady	175–177
Uganda, Idi Amin, and a very scary safari	177–179
A “luxury safari” to Tanzania	179–182
Wendy discovers Africa and things I apparently don’t know	182–185
The elephants are kindly, but they’re dumb…or are they?	195–197
Lions and car trouble in Africa	197–200
Facing down the lions…sort of	200–202
The accommodations in Africa, a close call, and Jeff	202–206
Rain, roads, and lost in the jungle	206–209
The amazing strong woman of the jungle	210
Mountains, mist, and those legendary gorillas	211–215
The sadly indescribable roads of Zaire	215–217
A place to stay, naked pygmies, and butterflies	217–220
The shortcut and the art of the deal—the African way	220–223
Great places, simple pleasures, and an elephant ride I’ll never forget	223–228
Losing people—living a safari leader’s worst nightmare	228–234
Epilogue	245

Index	246

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