Summer Habitat 2021

A STORY OF GROWTH, GENEROSITY AND GRATITUDE. Throughout his 28 years overseeing the Detroit Zoo, Ron Kagan has logged hundreds of miles walking the pathways, surveying the grounds and looking in on the animals. This has not only been his habit during the day; it is also the way he has spent many a peaceful evening, long after the school children have departed on buses and families have gone home to their dinners. In an imagined world, if the animals could communicate the way humans do, we might picture this: each of them – from the rescued racehorses and lions to the majestic wolves and critically endangered frogs – conveying a heartfelt thank you as Ron pauses on his evening stroll. It was 1992. Nobody had heard of social media, Google or Netflix. Wayne’s World was big at the box office, Whitney Houston was dominating the radio waves, and Ron Kagan was General Curator of the Dallas Zoo and Aquarium. When efforts were made to recruit him to lead the Detroit Zoo, which was then a City department, he initially demurred. Then came an unexpected call from U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn, whose late wife had been a Detroit Zoo commissioner. Judge Cohn had heard Ron interviewed on National Public Radio about rescuing a gorilla who lived in a cage in a Tacoma, Washington 3 1992 Ron Kagan begins as DZS Executive Director. Dinosauria! exhibit debuts. Wildlife Interpretive Gallery opens. 1993 1993 1995 First Meet Your Best Friend at the Zoo.