Sam Dunton © WCS
May 26, 2014
Leaps and Bounds
- as seen by -
Madeleine Thompson
Although I’m grateful that my co-workers aren’t given to launching surprise attacks on me, I feel a little envious of this former Wildlife Conservation Society staff member, who had a coati (named Snoopy) as an occasional officemate. By the time of this 1956 photo, WCS (then the New York Zoological Society) had a well-developed traveling school program, where Education Department staff would take animals—like Snoopy the coati, Tinker the kinkajou, and Petunia the skunk—into classrooms for educational visits. Apparently, when Snoopy wasn’t out visiting schools, he enjoyed practicing his acrobatics with unsuspecting Education Department staff!
This is just one of the thousands of historical images in the WCS collection. Through this blog, and also through the WCS Archives Digital Collections, we look forward to sharing some of these historical treasures with you.
Leave a Comment
KJConley
May 27, 2014 at 2:23 pm
This photo is amazing!! Especially considering the lack of digital techniques and, presumably, the lack of auto focus!
Thanks for the smile, Maddie 🙂
Maddie
June 10, 2014 at 9:59 pm
Glad you enjoyed, Ken! Great point about the skill involved in this shot. And I’m definitely curious about Julie’s question – – what did the next shot look like? Hoping to find something in the historical collection!
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Julie Larsen Maher
May 29, 2014 at 12:15 am
An interesting question has come to us from a fellow photographer…
“What does the frame right AFTER this one look like?!”
I’m not sure at what speed the photographer (or his camera gear) was able to capture this action over half a century ago – often moments like this are “one-of-a-kind” – but it might be worth a look into our archives to see!