(dramatic rock music) - Welcome, to A Shot Of Ag.

My name is Rob Sharkey.

I'm a farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

I started a podcast which led into an XM radio show, which led into a national television show, which led into me being right here today.

But today, today is not about me.

Today is about Yvonne Strode.

How are you doing Yvonne?

- I'm doing great.

- I love that name.

- Thank you.

- Have you had it your whole life?

- Pretty much, yeah.

- Okay.

(laughing) This is what concerns me though.

I mean, you're the director of the zoo here in Peoria, but what concerns me, is right off the bat, you graduated from Bradford high school.

- One of the few, the proud, yes, I did.

- [Rob] It's a very unique and kind of scary group.

- Well, it is, you know.

(Rob laughing) A fun place to go, you know.

Still keep in touch with a few people that I graduated with.

- That's more than I do.

(Yvonne laughing) - The high school is no more.

- No.

- They do have, I think is a K through to eight, I don't even know.

- I think the grade school is still there.

- Yeah.

- So it's kind of sad.

You know, lost the football team and the basketball team.

That was a big part of the life there in town.

- See, when I went to school, it was when they consolidated the football team.

So with Bradford Tuscola, which you would appreciate because Bradford n Tuscola, did not get along.

- No.

- And now all of a sudden we're on the same team.

- Yeah.

- It didn't go well.

- At least it wasn't Wyoming.

- Or Sheffield.

(laughing) Okay.

So you went to Bradford.

That's where he grew up then?

- Yeah, well, Chillicothe.

And then when high school came around, we moved up to Bradford.

- Okay, and then went off to a U of I.

- Yep.

Down in Champaigne.

- That's a proud moment for a Bradford graduate.

Like number one to get to college, and then to get in a real one.

(laughing) Most Bradford graduates go, like, to the institute of something.

- Oh, I'm never going to town again.

(laughing) - So what'd you go to school for?

- I thought I wanted to be a doctor at the time.

And then I took a couple of chemistry classes and decided, "Well, I'm not going to pass those."

- [Rob] Aren't those, they're the worst, aren't they?

- Oh my gosh!

You know, I was okay with the inorganic, but then organic, and it was just crazy.

So, I was taking a class on primate behavior, and I kind of fell in love with it.

- [Rob] Really?

- And thought, You know, I've always enjoyed going to zoos as I was growing up and let's see what that's all about.

- [Rob] Okay, Whoa.

(laughing) You go to U of I.

You're thinking about pre-med.

- Yup.

And you took a class on primate behaviors?

- Yes, yup.

It was in the anthropology department, actually.

- Gotcha.

What was it about this class, that, I don't know, interested you so much?

- Just how human, primates can be.

Or non human, primates can be.

And just how fascinating the study of what they do, and how they live.

- Okay.

I'm going to show my ignorance here, but I'm trying to line up timelines.

And I can, for the life of me, I can not think of her name, the famous lady that went and lived with the primates.

But was that coming out like during that same time.

- Jane Goodall?

- Yes, yeah.

- Yes, I remember watching all of her stories with the chimpanzees.

Diane Fossey was with the gorillas as well.

There was another lady with the orangutans.

That was a little before, but yeah, that was inspirational to see what they were doing, with those animals.

- [Rob] But it might have sparked this class, right?

- It could have, you know, that's when they were, we didn't have a lot of TV choices.

So we all watched, the same things.

- [Rob] PBS.

- But we all watched, well we did.

- [Rob] Such good old days.

- (Yvonne laughing) - Well, that was the forestation, you know, they added one.

That was great.

- Fox.

(laughing) I, it just, I don't know.

It's a little odd to me.

It's like, you know, U of I, right?

It's a farm school, but we had a, a class on privacy.

But look, what it did.

- It was, one thing is animals never, I never thought I'd work with them 'cause cows just scared the heck out of me.

And they still do.

I don't, I don't trust cows, you know?

So luckily I don't have to work with them.

So I work with rhinoceros who are little bit bigger, but a little more predictable than a cow.

- Okay, I would not milk a rhino either.

(laughing) I'm just not, not good, not good.

Okay, so what did you do after school then?

- Yeah, I tried to get a job at different zoos, and it's hard to break into the business.

So I became a volunteer at the Glen Oaks Zoo at the time.

And then when a position became open, I applied and got that, and I kind of worked my way up to the primate keeper there.

- [Rob] Oh, really!

- Yep, yep.

I got to work with spider monkeys, and Colbath monkeys, and everything in the, what was the original zoo building that opened in 1955.

So it was kind of like most primate exhibits at the time, bars and concrete and you hosed 'em out, and you fed them once a day, and that's the care you gave them.

And then the opportunity came to go to another zoo in Racine, Wisconsin.

And I took it and I worked with elephants there, and other large.

- Can you do that?

Can you jump from gorillas to elephant?

- Well, you can, if you maybe fudge the interview a little bit 'cause- - - Oh, you lied.

- Well, yeah.

(laughing) You know they ask, well, how do you feel about working with elephants?

And my first thought was, well, elephant keepers sometimes die.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- But I just said, I think it would be a wonderful offer too.

(laughing) And it was, I mean, just a fascinating to work with animals like that.

- Is it as scary the way there?

- It is a little scary.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause like they say elephants, don't forget.

So, you know, if, you know, you did something, maybe they didn't like one day they might remember it the next day, and you forgotten it, but- - - Oh, they all courageous.

- Sometimes- - - [Rob] I thought that was just a saying.

- No, no.

- Okay, (Yvonne laughing) so that was a, you said Wisconsin?

- Yep, yep.

- Okay.

- And then in 2002, the opportunity came that there was a job opened back in Peoria for assistant manager.

My family was still here in Redford, Wyoming.

- [Rob] Cheese curds out there too.

and fireworks too.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Bearing cheese curds and fireworks?

- Yes.

- That's what they all offer.

- Yeah, although I do like the Packers.

(laughs) - Well, this interview just took a turn dead.

(laughs) Okay, can tell you whatever you wanna talk about now.

- But, you know, I got the job back here.

Some of the animals I had worked with 10 years, - [Rob] They were still there.

- They were still there.

- [Rob] Okay.

Some of the keepers were still here that I knew.

So it was just a great environment.

And then we were planning our new Africa exhibit at the time we had started that.

- [Rob] So what year was this?

- 2002, we started and then 2005, the director took over the development job.

And I kind of just morphed in the position, which I never thought I'd be the director.

I didn't think I wanted to be that far away from the animals.

The day-to-day knowing the animals, having them be a part of your life.

And that's been difficult, you know, there's sometimes I'm like, I can't tell the rhinos apart.

You're gonna have to tell me, which is which and things like that.

So it's a little hard, but you know, it is rewarding, and it's a little easier on the body as well.

- Well, I mean, you, you've got to look at the whole thing is an overall, like from the overall view.

I mean, I can see why you wouldn't be able to tell the rhinos apart, because you'd have to be working with them all the time.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So the director of the zoo, so basically are you the one that is putting out all the fires, setting the budgets, all the stuff that's people like to do, but don't like to do?

- Budgets a lot of it, you know, of working with Dani, we're part of the puree park district.

So we go through a budget every year.

We start in August and into November.

So it's about a three month cycle that we're going through that, making sure we have everything we need, but you know, resources, aren't always flowing freely.

So you've got to sometimes make some hard choices, never on animal care or anything like that.

But you have to watch your pennies.

- Yeah, I imagine it's gotta be tough.

All right.

So I went to college, I lived in Peoria for two years.

I would have been 93, 94 May somewhere around there.

And I remember an article came out about worst zoos in the country and Peoria and fair too well.

- It did not.

- Yeah.

- At the time, and I was working there at the time it came out, we had lost the adult lions we had, and we made the decision to get three young ones.

And with the idea that we were gonna build an outdoor exhibit for them later, some people thought we should build the exhibit first, and then get the lion.

So I think that's where the nomination in the votes came from.

I will tell you that zoo has always been ethical above board.

The animals get the best care in the world.

So, you know... - They've changed.

I remember as a kid going to not just Peoria, Nairobi to the Bloomington, they were cages.

They were like, I dunno what, you kind of remember like a circus, right?

- [Yvonne] Yes.

- They were just a square cage concrete.

And there was a tiger, right?

Now they've got these, a very beautiful cages, a settings.

And that are more natural.

Is that a by-product of an article like that?

- Yeah, you know, we used to get as many animals that you can get, people like to see animals.

So cram, as many as you can into, you know, small spaces, then we evolved to, hey, you know, where you used to see 10 animals, you're gonna see five.

And there was some pushback.

People didn't like that.

- [Rob] Yeah, sure.

Where did (mumbles) cats go.

- Yeah, but then people started realizing, hey, these animals need a better quality of life than just in a concrete box for us to enjoy.

And so that's been a great evolution.

You know, the Africa exhibit we built was $32 million.

To do that what I like to show people is behind the scenes, all of the work that the keepers don't have to do.

We have squeezed cages where we put the animals.

If the vet has to look at them, that we can hydraulically, just squeeze it together.

- [Rob] Really, it's like a cattle shoot.

- So the animal can't move A little bit like a cattle shoot.

Yep, absolutely.

So the space we have off exhibit sometimes rivals what's on exhibit.

- Yeah, do you ever, do you ever go to the zoo by that Joe Exotic?

- No.

- No, I don't think that would probably be as good as your zoo.

- I don't think they would be accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, as we're very proud to be.

- Yeah, but we still don't like that, Carol Baskin or whatever, I don't wanna say so.

(laughing) All right, well, what is this?

- This is a very special animal, and you can even touch this one because he's plastic.

But down here, if I don't get a fender bitten off.

- I don't think we're insured here, so.

- This is the real thing.

This is a very special species here in Illinois.

This is an alligator snapping turtle.

We get a lot of calls people saying, I've got a snapping turtle, probably had common snapping turtle because these guys actually went extinct in the state of Illinois in about the 1980s.

Over-harvesting for meat, you know, we've yeah.

We've dammed up the river, the eggs as well.

So the department of natural resources reached out to us to take part in a recovery program.

So we've probably had about 400 of these guys at the zoo over the last 10 years.

And they've actually released them down in Southern Illinois.

So they were no longer extinct in the state of Illinois.

- [Rob] There you go.

- But we're just so proud of this work.

These guys are so unique with the scoots here as well.

And then they've got a little worm in their mouth.

I think you might be able to say that that's how they feed.

They just sit on the bottom of the river.

They'll bring that warm out.

Wiggling, just like if you're fishing.

- [Rob] It's fate.

- Yeah, a fish just goes in there and it like chomp down.

They can also do that on your finger.

So, you know, I make sure I hold them back here.

- [Rob] That's alive right there, that you've got.

- This is alive.

But you know, again, the camouflage, he doesn't even look like a rock, you know?

So these guys can get up to 150 pounds.

We have some at the zoo that are probably 80 pounds as well.

They're waiting to be released.

- The Chicago cornea has that one, that's the size of a Buick.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yup.

- They get massive.

- Yes, yeah.

- And he could, he or she could get that big.

- Yes, yeah.

So, you know, that's one of the things we do is we're very active in conservation programs because without a partner to take care of these guys, you know, the DNR probably wouldn't be able to raise them, and have this program.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So very, very proud of these guys.

- Do you ever get that, like you're working at a zoo, right?

You're control, you're the director of a zoo.

You've got this amazing creature, amazing story of Pipper like, well, make them do something.

- Yeah.

(Rob laughing) Yeah, can you wiggle your finger in front of the site?

No, I can't do that.

- If you put your finger in front of there.

You would get it chopped.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Yes, the one I always liked is if you put a lion tiger together who would win, I don't know what night.

I don't care what we're not going to do that, you know, but yeah, they're there.

We want people to enjoy.

I'd put my money on the tiger if I had to.

- Put on the tiger.

Just from a package fan so.

- But you know, making people care about these animals, you know, why should I recycle?

Why should I worry about, oh, driving when I could actually walk?

You know, it's for the animals.

It's for the climate.

We want people to learn that.

- [Rob] I mean, look how cool that thing is.

That is like a dinosaur.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- [Rob] I mean, most people would never think something like that lives in Illinois.

And because of efforts that you guys are doing and so many others they're back here.

- Yeah.

- That just kinda make you feel good.

- It does, and actually we've been able to send some of our staff down when they're releasing them into the wild.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- [Yvonne] And it's very emotional when they get to do that.

- Did they put the, like the trackers on them and stuff?

- Yeah, they do, the first group, they went out, they put the trackers on, and then they found out that there was a big white spot of glue.

That would be very noticeable for predators.

- [Rob] Oh, that's not good, yeah.

- So they had to paint them.

So they had to actually sit around and watch paint dry.

Well, (laughing) before they could put them out into the lion.

- Does that want to have a name?

- No, well, he's actually red, 20.

He's got a little pit tag here.

- [Rob] That's catchy.

- So he can always be told apart if he's really caught out in the wild.

- [Rob] Okay, I don't want anything to happen.

So- - - Yeah I'm gonna put him back if you're comfortable you can put him back down.

he's a little moist down here on, it's got paper towel there.

(laughing) - That's good.

So this, yeah.

So you said how big do they eventually get?

- 150 Pounds.

- All right.

- Yep.

- That's so big.

- It is, yeah.

- Yeah, okay.

It's, I think it's very cool.

- Yes, it is.

- That you have something like that.

Okay, so tell me about these camps.

- Yeah, we with COVID we weren't able to have our summer camps last year, but we're bringing them back this year.

They're very specific age groups.

So we can tailor all the activities to the kids.

They come Monday through Friday, every day they do games.

They meet animals.

Once you get into fourth grade, you can actually start picking up poop with us, which all the kids, well, the boys started look forward to the girls, not so much there.

And then- - - It that funny.

(Yvonne chuckles) - I mean, seriously, everybody's like, oh, nobody wants to pick up poop anymore.

Well, they just don't have an opportunity to.

- Yeah, you know, rhino poop is about that big.

So that's pretty good.

- I wasn't good was actually out of worry of that.

(laughing) - That's big you go.

- What you wanna ask, you got to be the elephant, right?

Has the biggest poo.

- Elephant's a little bit bigger, yeah.

- Just a little bit.

- Yeah.

Not, not much more.

- Well done.

Mr. Rhino, well done.

- And then a sixth, seventh, and eighth grade class actually are gonna spend the night at the zoo, and their last night there.

- So- - - [Rob] Where, at the cages?

- No, no, we put them on in one of our classrooms that actually looks right into the giraffe's barn.

So you're sleeping with the giraffes.

- That's cool.

What is the number one thing I gotta imagine it's a lion, right?

Everybody wants to see the lions.

- Yeah, especially because Arthur roars usually about three times a day, Arthur roars.

- [Rob] It's its name?

- Yeah.

- [Rob] Okay.

- And you can hear him all over the zoo.

Actually, I don't live far from the zoo, and sometimes I can hear him- - - [Rob] Really?

at my house, yep.

- That's kinda cool and you can't train them to do that.

- No, nope, yeah.

We trained them to do some things, you know, present their hip to us.

So if we need to vaccinate them, we can do that without sedating them, they come up and they open their mouth.

- How do you train a lion to present his hip to you.

- You put meat on the end of the stick.

And when he does something that you want, you feed him the, Reagan is our, the lion keeper.

So she's amazing with those signs.

- She must be amazing, (laughing) like, come on, boy, let's see your hip.

So these camps, so they're for any kid.

- They start at second grade and go up to eighth grade right now we might put a kindergarten class.

And if we have enough interest.

With COVID, we're just not sure if everybody's going to be comfortable this year, or next year coming back to us.

So we're hoping that they will.

- Tell me what COVID did for the zoo.

What happened there?

- It was scary when they closed us down.

The scariest part is we like to say in the industry, we couldn't furlough the animals.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So we had to take care of them.

So basically we broke ourselves up into two teams, and we never saw each other.

And the thought was if one team has to quarantine, the other team was going to be at the zoo 24/7, and they're gonna have to do everything, which is kind of a scary thought.

But you know, the animals have to be taken care of.

You can't go down to a temporary workforce and say, hey, I need a rhino keeper for a couple of weeks, you know, or something.

- Yeah, you can't just put it on Craig's list, right?

- That's right.

- So it was scary, you know, without visitors there, you know, you've still got money going out, but you've got no money coming in.

So we were so lucky.

And after about two months, we were able to reopen with some modifications, and people were so gracious, and coming back out and just thanking us for being open.

So they had something to do.

- That's the one thing I don't think people realize it's hard enough when a business shuts down during COVID, but when you have keep the expenses up, like you had to, that had to be hard to recoup.

- Yeah, it was, you know, and I think we had about half our normal visitorship, even after we reopened.

- Are people starting to get more used to coming out and coming back?

- They are.

- [Rob] Okay.

- Yup.

- That's good.

Do animals get COVID?

- Yeah, unfortunately yes.

And we found the most susceptible groups seem to be the big cats.

So- - [Rob] - Oh, really?

- Around the country, several lions, tigers, and snow leopards have gotten it.

The great thing is, it's a very mild disease, unless it's an older cat or they have health problems.

- [Rob] Got you.

- And we are right now on a waiting list to get vaccines, and for our lions and tiger- - - [Rob] Really?

- Against COVID.

So others who seem to be having some success with it.

And a lot of animals are getting over it quite well.

You know, it's just kind of a runny nose, and they don't want to eat for a little bit.

- Do you guys have armadillos.

- We have three banded armadillos.

We don't have the Texas nine banded armadillos.

You might see dead on the road.

- [Rob] They're coming up in Illinois.

- Yes they are.

- They carry a leprosy.

- I know the only animal besides humans that get leprosy, I think that's fascinating.

- Do you think it's a good idea to have them in your zoo?

'Cause I have theory, right?

You can have the lions, you can have anything deadly.

I think the downfall of humanity is gonna be brought on by armadillos.

(Yvonne laughs) - I think I can send one off, but you know- - - They're dense little critters.

- They are.

- [Rob] Tactical possums.

(Yvonne laughs) - Now possums might be the downfall, they're kind of.

- Well, they're just the same.

Yeah, the same animals.

- Just same thing.

- Okay, I would just like to say, maybe have that in the back of your mind.

- Okay.

- When it comes to like getting more armadillos, you think, well, you know, they do carry leprosy.

- The leprosy thing, yeah.

- Okay.

Is there an animal that you would love to be like, all right, I got this animal to Peoria.

- Well, the one animal I've always dreamed of working with, which I won't, but that would be a gorilla.

I just think they're the coolest animal.

I did get to work with some orangutans, which is wonderful.

- That probably have to be a huge exhibit, right?

- It would have to be yes, very large, very strong.

And certainly I like to think they can out-think us, you know?

So any mistake you make in the design, they're gonna find it and show it to you.

- You gotta be careful, right?

I mean, one thing I remember is, it was a field trip to Peoria, and we were in the primary house, and the zookeeper was telling us that how strong their hands were, because they were putting the cages together, and they bolted them.

And then they took a hammer and they smashed the threads, but they were strong enough.

Their hands are strong enough to unthread over smash dreads.

That's ridiculously strong.

- Yes, yup, we used to have a CACs there and I know he had, he was very, very strong and yeah, I remember- - - [Rob] That might have been you telling us that.

- It could have been.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- 'Cause that's when we bolted logs together with threaded rod.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And then yeah, you would have to bang up the end so they could not get that nut off.

- I remember going home and tell my dad and he's like, no, they can't be that strong, (Yvonne laughs) but they were.

- They were, yeah.

- So when you hire people, you have to keep that in mind, right?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

- So what do you want people to know about the zoo?

- Just how much goes into it.

When I tell people that are dresser on birth control, they just kind of look at me like that's strange, but, you know, we have to worry about having too many giraffes.

What are we going to do with them?

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So, you know, we control breeding on almost all of our animals to make sure, you know, the keepers are out there, rain, sun, winter time.

We're gonna be there Christmas.

I get to do dishes.

That's what they trust me to do.

- Dishes on Christmas?

- Yeah, yeah.

You know, I don't know the animals well enough.

- This not why the lions like him.

(laughing) - I could, but again, we wanna make sure they're emotionally, physically healthy.

We always used to just shy away from saying, we want happy animals, but you know, right now we embrace it.

We do want our animals to be happy and I think they are.

And if they weren't, we're going to make changes to make sure they are.

- It's got to almost make you feel a little good.

All right, someone can go to the zoo, and not realize how hard everybody's working.

- Exactly right.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

- Yeah.

I mean, that says a lot.

It's amazing that it's not that long ago.

It was in that article about, you know, one of those zoos, it was not one of the best in the country to what you guys have built now.

It's fantastic, and you gotta be very proud of that.

- I am, you know, just that process, you know, we had some great community partners.

Caterpillar certainly helped us a lot.

We had a lot of individuals doing a lot of hard work.

I remember people worth a whole lot more money than I'll ever see in my lifetime out selling soda on opening day.

So everything went well, you know, so we've just had great support, just the community coming all the time.

And especially after COVID coming back to see us, and trust us that we're taking the precautions, we need to keep them safe.

- Yvonne Strode director of the zoo.

I think it was great that you came on the show, and that you announced that you will no longer have armadillos in the zoo.

(Yvonne laughing) And that you will- - - I don't think I said that.

- And that you will no longer root for the Packers.

It shows a lot of character.

(laughing) Seriously, thank you so much for being on this show.

The zoo is, I mean, to have a city, to have, you know, something that you can be proud of.

I think you have to have a zoo.

That's just my personal opinion, and it's so great for Peoria to have a good one.

So Yvonne Strode, thank you so very much for what you do.

- Thank you.

- Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

(upbeat music)