Marlin Perkins

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Richard Marlin Perkins (March 28, 1905 – June 14, 1986) was a zoologist, best known as a host of the television program Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

[edit] Biography

Born in Carthage, Missouri, he began his zoological career as a laborer at the zoo in St. Louis, Missouri. He rose through the ranks, becoming the reptile curator in 1928. Perkins served as director of the Buffalo Zoological Park in Buffalo, New York and the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois then returned to the Saint Louis Zoological Park as director in 1962. Perkins joined Sir Edmund Hillary as the zoologist for one of Hillary's Himalayan expeditions in 1960 to search for the legendary Yeti.

Perkins became host of Wild Kingdom when it debuted in 1963. Through his fame on television, he became an advocate for the protection of endangered species. He retired from zookeeping in 1970. Perkins died of cancer in 1986. In 1990 he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Although Walt Disney had fabricated footage of a mass suicide of lemmings on Wild Kingdom,^[1] Marlin Perkins punched a reporter, Bob McKeown, who asked questions about whether wildlife films were inaccurately staged.^[2].

During his career, Perkins suffered multiple bites from venomous snakes. During a rehearsal of Zoo Parade, he was bitten by a timber rattlesnake. In other incidents, he was also bitten by a cottonmouth and a Gaboon viper.^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Lights, Camera, Wildlife"; Zoogoer Magazine, Smithsonian National Zoological Park
2. ^ How We Work - The Story of the Fifth Estate at the CBC
3. ^ Marlin Perkins' Snake Bite. snopes.com (2006-08-03). Retrieved on 2006-08-04.

[edit] External links

• Perkins at the St. Louis Zoo
• Marlin Perkins at the Internet Movie Database
• St. Louis Walk of Fame
• Perkins Papers at Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri–St. Louis