Olaf Growald
Growing up in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, there was no shortage of unique creatures for Rick Hudson to catch as a young boy.
If there was anything in his pathway that crawled, jumped, or slithered, he likely brought it along with him to his home in the small rural town of Stuart, Virginia.
Now, at 67 years old, Hudson reigns as the Fort Worth Zoo’s oldest employee and boasts the staff’s longest tenure after coming on board in 1980.
Spanning more than four decades, Hudson’s entire career has evolved at the Fort Worth Zoo, where he now specializes in turtle, tortoise, and iguana conservation.
He attributes his success to the generosity of the community and the willingness of zoo leaders to prioritize species survival and recovery.
“When there’s a wildlife crisis out there, people know and expect that I will be in the trenches fighting where I can,” Hudson says. “I’m tired of crisis management, but I’m damn good at it.”
And he has his never-ending list of accolades, accomplishments, and awards to prove it. Most recently, he received the Columbus Zoo’s 2021 Commitment to Conservation Award for his “drive, heart, and spirit of collaboration.”
“Whether he was working on the recovery of the endangered Jamaican iguana population through head start and reintroduction programs, helping to rescue radiated tortoises from a massive confiscation in Madagascar, or establishing assurance populations of imperiled species in range countries, Rick’s work has made a profound conservation impact,” says Tom Schmid, president and CEO of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.”
A Lifelong Passion
From the very beginning, Hudson knew he would be a zoo man.
He was the kid all the locals called when they needed to remove an insect, lizard, snake — or basically any creature that would send chills down most backs.
But it was inevitable that it would become his lifelong career after he opened his very own miniature backyard zoo when he was 12 years old, showcasing the best of the local lizards, frogs, turtles, snakes, and salamanders that he had caught.
Affectionately called the Woodland Zoo, Hudson’s small business operation quickly amassed fame, prompting local journalists to write a compelling feature on his well-crafted venture.
Still framed in his home today, the local newspaper quoted the preteen as saying he hoped to “become a naturalist and work in a real zoo” when he grew up one day.
The whole family supported the endeavor, he says, and while he tasked his father with building habitats for his ever-growing hobby, his mother rode along with him on his search for box turtles after summer rains.
Hudson clung to his passion throughout his childhood and went on to attend the University of Richmond, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in biology.
Ironically, the career opportunities in rural Virginia — the very place he provided unprofessional care to an abundance of wildlife — were scarce.
While on the hunt for a job, he recalls flipping through the pages of a specialty wildlife magazine and spotted an advertisement for the opening at the Fort Worth Zoo.
He had never been to the zoo, or even to Texas, but he admired its herpetology department, so he quickly put his name in the hat for employment.
After receiving a request for an interview from the zoo, Hudson made the 17-hour trip with his sister — eager but nervous to impress.
“I remember getting a phone call from the zoo, saying I had gotten the job,” Hudson says. “That’s the day my life turned around.”
Olaf Growald
At 42 years, Rick Hudson stands as the Fort Worth Zoo’s longest tenured employee,
A Hero in Conservation
Although Hudson has always had a preference for reptiles and amphibians, he says his love for them has certainly grown over the years.
As the assistant curator for reptiles for 20 years, Hudson was a key player in strengthening the zoo’s herpetology department. And he proudly takes acclaim for bringing in one of the zoo’s most beloved species — the Komodo dragon — as well as the gharials.
But a dire need for help in the wildlife crisis prompted Hudson to change direction, and in the early 2000s, he began his career in the conservation of turtles, tortoises, and iguanas.
“When I first came here, I had read an article about the Jamaican iguana,” Hudson says. “They had found one they believed to have been extinct since the 1940s. I remember how much reading that article really impacted me; it really signaled the rediscovery of that species. And that stuck with me.”
From then forward, Hudson says he became more involved with the rediscovery of the species, spearheading programs to revive them from the brink of extinction.
With the support of the Fort Worth Zoo, he founded the International Iguana Foundation and the Turtle Survival Alliance — now his full-time job within the zoo — traveling the world to save them.
Brandi Addison
Fort Worth Zoo's Rick Hudson
Before the pandemic, Hudson frequently traveled to Madagascar to rehabilitate sick and injured tortoises that were rescued from the wildlife trade.
“We’ve seen some pretty brutal things from animals, and it’s hard to see it,” Hudson says. “But you’ve got to be optimistic if you’re passionate about wildlife conservation.”
Currently, about 26,000 rescued tortoises await their release back into the oceans, which he says requires a lot of community negotiations.
“We can’t just go release them with people poaching,” Hudson says. “We’ve got to find the proper habitat, and we’ve got to have a community that really wants to protect them.”
A hero in conservation, Hudson has no desire to quit during such perilous times for wildlife.
“I can’t walk away,” Hudson says. “Conservation is my life.”
