All aboard the Zoo express.

It's right here.

It finally here.

It's here.

Yeah.

Exciting.

You know, I've been coming to the zoo.

My oldest one is 18, at home.

And we've been coming here for more than 20 years to the Potawatomi Zoo.

This is new.

This is news.

This is exciting.

And for the last 25 years, we had a gas powered engine train, which, you know, was fine at the time.

That, it's like purpose, but that gasoline engine ran all day long.

Yeah, it did, even from just a conservation standpoint, having an electric train.

Now that serves the same purpose is going to be so much better for our mission and everything.

So we're pretty excited to be introducing it to people.

Is that the big reason why you guys shifted from the old train to this one, or what was the intention?

Well, then I mean, the other train was 25 years old, and if you remember right, you probably came here a lot and maybe broke down or their signs of speed training was underway.

It was definitely showing its wear and tear.

So we knew we had to get another train and there are huge investment to train like this is about $650,000.

So I know.

So when you're buying those $3 admission ticket, you'll understand why I said, yeah, I got that right.

Yeah.

So it's but being a nonprofit, it's so important for us because you think about thousands of people coming to the zoo and riding the train.

It's what sustains everything from the animal care to the zoo keepers to our vet.

You know, a lot of times you don't think of a zoo.

You think, how how's the train associated with that?

That's a great piece of information.

It is so, yeah.

So everything from our illuminate events that we do to the attractions, the carousel, the trains that also supports this zoo.

If you can think about all the expense we have, that's not revenue generating, the feed animals to pay keeper staff, all that kind of stuff.

We have to have these things to be able to sustain.

So and I know I used to live over here in River Park and we could hear the train engine from our house.

It's a staple if you ever look at anybody's pictures when they've been to the zoo.

Yeah, they've been on the train.

And don't worry, everyone was always worried with an electric train to be silent.

No, it actually okay.

And does that.

We can't do it now.

But it does the whole chugga chugga chugga chugga it actually.

So that Chuck know you did it whistle.

And yeah, it's got all the sound features of all the, what the other train has it actually a little bit more, actually.

And this whole thing is brand new.

It's a whole brand new good speaker system.

Everything.

I don't remember the old train.

I was like, my number one.

Yeah, you can hear it like Charlie Brown.

Yeah.

You can now hear actually what's happening when you walk around the place.

So yeah.

So we're really excited about it.

And this is going to be debuting this season.

Yeah.

This season.

And the album opening, we're officially open now.

So we've got our other attraction still the carousel that everybody loves.

You know, with that attraction pass, you can do the carousel, you can ride the train, you can do giraffe feeding.

And then on line, we're gonna have all these options to meet animals so you can do a meet and greet with I love that that is such a unique experience.

Because if you're not necessarily wanting to do a party here, which is available to you, if you wanted to have like a birthday party, but you just want your kiddo to have a special experience, or even for a date night or a girls night out, something like that.

Well, it helps us tell our story of what we're doing.

So many people who may have, you know, they may be against zoos or not understand what we do when you can get back and meet a sloth, or you can meet a capybara and talk to the zookeepers about what we do.

It really does change people's perspectives.

So, we're pretty excited.

And then the new rhino, we got, number of a bar, southern white rhino.

I know you and I had to go back.

I know, I know, I still have that.

That's my picture.

I love that one.

It was such a cool experience.

But if you remember, he had to go to the Columbus Zoo for breeding, this past year.

So we got to see.

Doing a good job.

He's doing great, Ricci.

We've seen pictures.

He's in a beautiful field.

I mean, he's doing great, but Frankie is 1,000 pounds heavier.

He's 5,200 pounds.

He's coming to us from Florida.

And so later this spring, he's going to be coming in, and we're going to be introducing him to the public and hopefully doing the same.

Meet and greets that we were with him.

But we hear he's a really good boy, so we're excited to go with the transition.

When you bring a zoo animal into your zoo, like, how long does that transition take him?

So we always talk about that.

Every animal comes into the zoo, it goes into a 30 day quarantine.

We just got to make sure that they're healthy and everything's good before they go out with the animals.

But as you can imagine, a big animal like a rhino can't really stay at the clinic.

So he will actually he will actually go to the exhibit.

I know that our vets really knows that the public want to see him, so we're probably going to get him out on exhibit a lot sooner than 30 days.

Okay.

But so it'll probably be a couple weeks after he arrives, but we'll just wanted to calm down.

You know, when you come to, he's going to be in a crate.

You know, and so he's going to come out.

He's going to not know the people around him.

He's not going to know the zoo.

So we're going to want to really kind of just baby him, give him everything he wants for a couple weeks, and then then he'll get to come out to exhibit and, debut for the public.

I love that, I love that, and of course, the giraffe have been here for a while now to hear you continue to expand so much.

Well, let's talk about the draft for a minute, because that's another opportunity for people to get a little bit more hands.

Yeah, absolutely.

So we have the giraffe feeding every day.

If it's bad, whether it's in the barn, if it's nice to do it, if you do it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we're yeah.

Yeah.

So we do it indoors too.

If the weather's not great, we got Hadassah.

The little.

She's actually, believe it or not, about a year now, she was, born about a year ago.

Yeah.

So we have we have quite a herd of giraffe out there now.

At least three of them now are coming up and feeding, so it's.

Oh, that's great.

I love the frolicking videos that you guys have posted.

Yeah.

They're getting I get the zoomies.

They start running around, which is so funny right.

Because I have dogs and watching them.

But watching the giraffe at the zoo, it's.

Yeah, I mean we're getting we're a little nervous.

We're like, oh my gosh, please don't get hurt.

At the same time as this time of year because yeah, yeah.

This train a little bit makes.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Because this is just beautiful and it is brand new.

It is brand new.

So yeah I mean it's it's all shiny and nice.

So there's actually a company called Chase trains out of Topeka and they literally build trains for, theme parks and zoos.

So, there's not very many companies like that, but it's a CP Huntington.

So if you're a train person, you know what that means.

I know we have train people out there.

I know that, you know, this is your sweet spot because we were telling you, I was telling you guys earlier, we sold our old train to a dairy farmer up in, Canada.

Was still getting lost.

Yeah, he's a farmer that happened to have tracks, and he, I had some grandkids, and he wanted to buy the train, so.

And we posted it in a train magazine.

So there's, like this whole network of train people out there that's all about the train.

So definitely fit more people on the train.

It's about the same as the old train, only because they have a fit into this tunnel that we had, and our track, the size of it and everything.

But we're going to be is this new was always here.

We've always had handicapped.

But this is much better.

This is much more friendly.

Yeah, yeah.

So this is the olden was a little bit higher and there wasn't as much space and everything.

So this will be much easier.

You can get a whole, electronic card on here if you need to, and everything.

That's wonderful for your accessibility.

And then we're going to be building a ramp that's separate from there, because that ramp can be a little hard to get up on.

Okay.

And just kind of even building some steps for people to get on because it was always kind of hard to climb into the train car.

So there's some more work we have to do.

But, one of the cool parts of Indiana, Michigan Power Foundation, they're the sponsor of the train.

They've given us $50,000 a year, for the next three years.

So just a means just to help maintain that.

So when you come, you'll see their logo around the train.

And they've been huge partners of the zoo.

And being in the electric train, it was a perfect partnership.

It's all about electricity.

I know you guys have something else coming up, too.

Oh.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

What is this?

Yeah, that's.

That is the electricity.

What we were just talking about.

That's it.

So just like your electric car, you can see it plugged in over there to the side.

So we'll plug that in.

Just like an object.

Just like at home.

That's exactly, exactly.

So, the train driver, we'll have to plug that in as we're waiting up there at the station.

So we will be able to run as often.

Yeah.

Well, so he can run all day long.

So it may need to be.

There's a charger also at the station.

So when they plug it in there, if they say even 30s gives it enough charge that it'll keep it going all day long.

So that's really nice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

So you have any issues.

All right.

So we're talking about electricity but we're going to be lighting things up here pretty soon.

We are.

Yeah.

Good segue.

Good segue right.

Yes.

We are going to be lighting it up is illuminate I love this I went last year.

It is phenomenal.

Oh such an experience.

You were walking around.

You're seeing some of the lanterns coming in right now.

They're setting them up.

It's all under the sea.

So it's crabs to sea turtles to fish.

And, I haven't seen a single duplicate of what was like here last year.

Yeah, it's going to be pretty amazing.

So we're excited for those people who haven't been here before.

Illuminate.

I mean, it is an all encompassing experience.

It is.

It's a check in with it.

It's a Chinese lantern festival, but it's not what you think of with the lanterns that you light.

And it's all 3D animals, life size crabs and animals and sea turtles and all kinds of stuff.

It's just it's magical.

Like the zoo just comes alive with lights.

It's pretty amazing.

Is it an extra fee for it?

Yeah.

So that's a nighttime event and it's going to run from 7 to 11:00 at night, because we're going to be running clear through June with this.

And it gets dark so late June.

It's going better.

What a nice time.

In the summertime when it's warm, you can come out here and, you know, we got to, I know we try to be careful how we say this, but we have a three way liquor license now so parents can come out and have a margarita or a cocktail and walk around that.

Yeah.

So it does it for the night.

It's.

Yeah, it's going to be a fun summer event.

That's awesome.

What other big things and a real quick do you have a coming up because you guys are expanding.

I yeah and I'm seeing more stuff.

So when you pull into the parking lot, the first expansion of the zoo, big cat tracks, it's the first expansion of the zoo.

It's two more acres.

It's, tigers and leopards.

A whole new playground.

You probably saw the playground.

Yeah, I did, I foresee kids are going to have to look at that all year long.

And to be ready.

Let's estimate it coming back.

We're really excited about that.

That gets all of our big cats officially out of cages and into what we consider modern zoological standards.

So I love that, pretty exciting stuff.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm excited.

Let's just blow this train horn a little.

One more time.

More time.

All right.

Can I push the button?

All right, so here's the bell.

Okay.

Now push.

Oh, there you go, I think, yeah.