Thane Maynard is an American zookeeper and author who currently serves as the Director of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. He is also an author and the host of ''The 90-Second Naturalist'', a 1½-minute radio program played on Cincinnati Public Radio stations

WGUC WGUC (90.9 MHz) is a public FM radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is owned by Cincinnati Public Radio and has a classical music format. WGUC broadcasts using HD Radio technology and plays jazz on WGUC-HD2 and adult album alternative on WGUC ...

and

WVXU WVXU (91.7 FM) is a public radio station located in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is owned by Cincinnati Public Radio, which also operates station WGUC and WMUB. It airs public radio news and talk syndicated programming from National Public Radio, A ...

. Often appearing on ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...

'', Maynard has also been featured on '' Good Morning America'', ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...

'', and ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...

''. He is actively involved in the

Association of Zoos and Aquariums The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), originally the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1924 and dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums in ...

, and is a member of Leadership Cincinnati Class XVII, The Hillside Trust, and The Ohio Chapter of TNC. When

Harambe Harambe (May 27, 1999 – May 28, 2016) was a western lowland gorilla who lived at the Cincinnati Zoo from 2014 to 2016, and previously at the Gladys Porter Zoo for 15 years. On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosu ...

, a male 17-year-old

Silverback gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

, was shot dead after a 3-year-old boy managed to slip into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, Maynard justified the killing of the gorilla because he felt the child's life was in serious danger.

Animal rights groups This list of animal rights groups consists of groups in the animal rights movement. Such animal rights groups work towards their ideals, which include the viewpoint that animals should have equivalent rights to humans, such as not being "used" i ...

and others have questioned both the adequacy of the enclosure and the necessity for killing the gorilla. Maynard is co-author with

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best kn ...

and Gail Hudson of ''Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink.''

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American zoologists {{US-zoologist-stub