Photo Op with Marlin

Recalling the accomplishments of zoo founder Marlin Perkins

Back in the 1980s, there was a television show called, "Wild Kingdom by Mutual of Omaha," with St. Louis Zoo director Marlin Perkins as the host.  This show was WILDLY popular (pun intended) and one of the first nature shows to take the nation's attention.  I remember tuning in on a regular basis to watch Marlin Perkins track elephants in the African savannah and show off the fangs of deadly snakes he was holding.

Fast forward to March of 2018 - this guy on the left had the assignment all 5th graders in their school have had since the beginning of time: the Famous Missourian! His famous Missourian to research was none other than Marlin Perkins.

This guy did a most excellent job of preparing for his presentation, even reading Marlin's 257 page autobiography - which he highly recommends! We said the next time we visited our beloved zoo we would have to get a picture with old Marlin - and here it is!