Trish Exton-Parder to leave the Calgary Zoo after 34 years
Posted Jan 9, 2019 7:40 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – One of the most recognizable voices for the Calgary Zoo will be calling it a career at the end of the month.
Trish Exton-Parder has been with the zoo for 34 years, seeing it grow from a small attraction on Saint George’s Island to one of the most renowned zoos in the world.
She said there are too many memories to think about, but one moment that sticks out was when they recovered from the 2013 flood.
“All of what happened from the moment of the flood up until we opened was the support that came to us saying we want you to be around, and it gave the zoo that huge injection of how much people care. That’s when people come out when you’re at your critical time and it was a bit frightening it was amazing to see people that needed to find a way to be there.”
Exton-Parder gives lots of credit to everyone else who has helped it improve over the years and moving forward, she will always remain an ambassador for the Calgary Zoo.
She has many fond memories Including back when the first Sri Lankan elephant was born in 1986, and they held a baby shower for it things got a little dramatic when the baby elephant lost sight of its mom.
“All of sudden there is this little elephant running through the gardens and chasing one of the cameramen,” she recalled. “It was just that here we were celebrating this incredible birth and everybody was apart of it and you couldn’t wipe the smiles off people’s faces.”
