[What'saCobra?]

This is a big loss to me and our family. Although it might date me pretty well as a dinosaur, as a kid i used to watch Marlin Perkins on Zoo Parade (1950 - 1957) and Mutual of Ohaha's Wild Kingdom (1962 - 1971.) Marlin was just about the tops in his field and was Director/Curator of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Several times we drove from Boston to Chicago as my pop used to be a bowling Champ for the Herald Traveler Newspaper. i was a pre-teen and we always visited Marlin at the zoo. He got me very interested in Cheetahs, because of the knowledge, even in those days, that they would be lost to the wild due to not enough genetic variation. Although it has not yet quite happened, Marlin was correct and they are highly endangered.

Nobody, except my dad and my ex-SeeBee Uncle Francis (he and thousands of others built the Burma Road from India into China during WWII) had more impact on me than Marlin. (Of course, i also had a few darn nice teachers, particularly the cute music teacher in the 7th grade, but that's another story.) He was just such a great guy and always had time to meet one on one with people. He was impressed that we drove all the way from Boston to also see the Lincoln Park Zoo and was always ready with a warm welcome. He would take the time to show my little bro' and i something interesting and new to the zoo, but he remembered my love for the speedy Cheetah and focused on that interest of mine also. (Bill Thomas comes to mind here, but i am a Cobra guy, mostly.)

Both these guys and a few others were perhaps the leaders in the animal side of the environmental movement's origins. Seems to me that Steve Irwin was right up Marlin's ally. i think his environmental opinions were both real and rational. He didn't think that people were a plague on an earth that would be better off without us. They both really loved animals, both in the wild and in reasonable but sophisticated captivity. They both loved people, but loved the animals more. They were both husbandry specialists, but loved the wild first.

They'll both be missed.