BiologyCoachOnlineBlog

 TBT - Today we honor zoologist Marlin Perkins. Born on March 28, 1905, in Carthage, Missouri, Perkins attended public school there before entering Wentworth Military Academy. He got into trouble at Wentworth for keeping snakes in his dormitory. Perkins dropped out of college to take a job at the Saint Louis Zoological Park where he became Curator of Reptiles in 1928. Perkins was also zoologist on Sir Edmund Hillary's infamous 1960 Himalayan expedition to find the legendary Yeti.

Perkins' television career began when he became the host of Lincoln Park Zoo's "Zoo Parade." [During one fateful rehersal of Zoo Parade, Perkins suffered a bite from a timber rattlesnake.] He survived, of course, and would go on to host Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom" in 1963. Perkins was instrumental in establishing the Wild Canid Survival and Research Center (WCSRC) near St. Louis in 1971. [WCSRC is a wolf sanctuary that has an ongoing and successful wolf breeding and re-placement program.]

Perkins retired from "Wild Kingdom" in 1985 but he remained with the Saint Louis Zoo as Director Emeritus until his death on June 14, 1986.