The San Antonio Zoo has undergone an incredible transformation since Tim Morrow took over as the CEO in 2014. From their goals to the way they interact with our community, the Zoo is changing stereotypes. The mission of the San Antonio Zoo now includes much more emphasis on conservation, education and interaction. Tim could speak for days on these issues but I am glad we got one hour of his time.

Transcript:

[music]

Justin Hill: Hello, and bienvenido San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour, discussing the people, places, and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great, and unique, and the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here. [applause]

All right. Welcome to The Alamo Hour. Today's guest is Tim Morrow. Tim is the CEO of the San Antonio Zoo. He has previously worked with, and correct me if I get it wrong, but I think Fiesta, Texas, the San Antonio Spurs, and SeaWorld, basically all big hospitality groups in the city. Since 2014, he's been the CEO of the zoo. In that time, you've seen a lot of the projects that have changed at the zoo. I mean, the Kiddie Park moved over, which a lot of people know about, the Will Smith Zoo School was launched. If you've been there lately, the rhinos Africa exhibit has become a whole new expanded habitat for animals to share space.

There's a Jaguar habitat going in, the list is on and on, but some of the more interesting things that I learned about recently is the work they've done to bring animals back from the brink of extinction or endangered status. There's a lot he's done here. I was recently lucky to be appointed to the San Antonio Zoological Society or the zoo board. I've gotten to meet Tim, I asked him to come on. Thanks for being here.

Tim Morrow: Thanks for having me.

Justin: Tim, I do this with everybody. I start with just some general questions. The idea behind my podcast was to get to talk to people of San Antonio, share their stories, so some background questions. You're running the zoo, do you have pets?

Tim: I do have pets. I have two dogs and a cat. Then I live at Leon Springs area, so we have random wild animals at all times, around the house, or sometimes in the house.

Justin: Nothing exotic?

Tim: Nothing exotic. No. I leave that to the zoo, to the professionals.

Justin: In your life have you ever had exotic animals?

Tim: I have had snakes and fish, and those kinds of things, but nothing crazy that you would expect maybe some of the workers at a zoo to have at their house.

Justin: Yes. I think that's fair. When I'm at the zoo, I feel like a kid, do you have a favorite animal?

Tim: It really changes. It's really whatever habitat we're working on becomes my favorite animal, because you really dive so deep into learning about that animal because what we really try to do now with habitats is create natural spaces for them that are enriching, and so you need to learn as much about them as possible. Right now, we're working on jaguar, a big overhead catwalk system so jaguar has become just an animal that I'm fascinated with. I mean they're a big predator, they're strong, they're stealth, and just what they do is incredible. If you watch them hunt and grab crocodiles out of the water and pull them up in trees, it's just an amazing cat.

The fact they used to be right here in south Texas, and that they're still jaguars three hours south of the border into Mexico, it's not unrealistic that someday Jaguars could make their way back in Texas.

Justin: I didn't realize that, they came all the way up to South Texas?

Tim: Yes, they were here. They were in Arizona, really across the whole Southwest, and actually, they're starting to spot one in Arizona that's been going back and forth across the border-

Justin: No joke.

Tim: -that they've been spotting in Arizona. Not beyond the realm of possibility that Jaguars someday could show up in south Texas.

Justin: I thought they were more rainforest-y, they'll actually go off into the desert?

Tim: Yes. They live in multiple areas, savannas, deserts, rainforests, which is another really cool feature about them. They really just adapt to whatever environment they're in. We do some conservation work in Mexico with them in rainforest. Just three hours south of Brownsville, there's rainforest in the mountains there, and it's full of Jaguars and all kinds of amazing species.

We partnered with Gladys Porter Zoo and an NGO in Mexico to really do a lot of research down there on jaguars and tracking them and seeing how they are connecting with each other and connecting to other wild places as they move around.

Justin: Well, I mean, at the orientation, I was blown away at all that I didn't know, and I think I'm going to learn a lot today. I always ask everybody and we always post about it, and I've learned a lot about San Antonio. What are some of your favorite places in San Antonio? I kind of say the hidden gem, so the first time I went to the like other Missions or the first time I went to the Tea Garden, I remember thinking, how have I not been here. These are great. Do you have any places in town like that, that you think are these off-the-beaten-path, really neat places?

Tim: Yes. There's so many new things and old things people are discovering in San Antonio. I think the Trailway system that San Antonio is connecting is just really cool and underappreciated. I live up on the north side of town towards Leon Springs and there's just such gems up on that side, around town like dance halls and old bars that have been there forever, and parks like Friedrich park is now very much discovered after COVID. I mean, there's 500 cars up and down both sides of the street now for those parks, but there's jewels all over this town.

You could explore San Antonio forever and not see everything. I was the chair of The Tourism Council here in San Antonio, and I've not even been to all the tourist attractions in town. Now, I do stuff with parks and I have been to probably 1/10th of the parks in San Antonio and across the South Texas.

Justin: Yes, so I had the Mayor on and he told me about Denman Estate Park, I think is what it was called, and I had never even heard of that-

Tim: Me neither.

Justin: -and then I looked it up and it's got these like Japanese ponds, and there's Japanese architecture. I didn't even know it existed. Do you think Silver Fox would be a hidden gem?

Tim: I think Silver Fox is an iconic, legendary place.

[laughter]

Justin: I'm sure it has been a legend for many people. Same question about the zoo. What are the spots in the zoo do you think that, “Man, they don't get enough attention or make sure you find this place.”

Tim: I think the really cool thing about our zoo is it's not this big Boulevard, big wide pathway all the way through. It's got these lots of little exploratory pathways that people can take advantage of. One of the areas which we're about to revamp and redo next year is the Crunk Husky Tiny Tot nature spot. It's an area dedicated to small kids. People just walk right past that area, but if you go in there and go around the back of the building there's outdoor play for the kids, there's exhibits back there that people don't know about with tortoises. We had sloths back there at one point and we would post pictures and people were like, “Where is that? I go to the zoo all the time, I've never seen that.”

We have a lot of places in the zoo that people really don't go to if they don't get off the main pathways, and then within the zoo, we're 107 years old, so if you really pay attention to the concrete and the architecture, there's incredible architecture there and incredible hand-carved fir wood concrete throughout the zoo, which was, Dionicio, who's a famous artist that did the benches around town that looked like--

Justin: Like the one in Alamo Heights that looks like a ferry.

Tim: He was doing a lot of work in Brackenridge Park. There's a lot of his work in the park, and his apprentices were working in the zoo, and so we have this incredible connection to that artist, and so we had this really beautiful zoo with big trees and historic walls and historic buildings that layered on top of all the amazing animals and the things that we're doing at the zoo now. It's just really fun to explore our zoo.

Justin: Is the Tiny Tots area, is that where you can go feed the tortoises too?

Tim: Yes. We have a tortoise experience, we try to bring a lot of experiences now where people can get up close with the animals, so you can go in with the tortoises and feed the tortoises. You can go with kangaroos now, pet kangaroos.

Justin: I saw that

Tim: Feed giraffes, we have rhino behind the scene where you go down and touch our rhinos, or you can go hippo behind the scene. You could feed lorikeets, you could feed flamingos. We know, and zoos know that when people will have that personal connection with an animal, like one-on-one connection moment, like you're staring at a giraffe face to face, then you really get inspired to care for that animal more because you've had that moment, and hopefully that translates to that person going home and doing things that can help the environment and help save that species.

Justin: I'm telling you, it's kind of embarrassing to say, but I did the tortoise experience and I told my wife I feel like I connected with the tortoise. It was just all very strange, you were just eye-to-eye and petting it like a dog, and it was almost a connection. I think you're right. It still sticks with me.

Tim: People remember the names of the giraffes, the names of the tortoises, and the kangaroos. There's a connection formed for sure.

Justin: Sure. Your go-to food and drink spots in town?

Tim: Fralo's pizza, number one, because I live out in Leona Springs, great pizza, you could sit outdoors, under the stars, and then he's got a great little place next door that's a jazz bar called bar 301. That's my neighborhood area bar, and all the friends hang out there. One of the things I've learned quickly when I got to zoo was there's just so many food choices down around the zoo in that area that it's limitless. I could literally just drive down St. Mary's and pick a new place every day probably for months. Bombay, of course, near the zoo is a great place to go. They do a lot to support the zoo too every month.

Elsewhere. I don't know if you've been to Elsewhere Garden, it used to be the luxury, what Terrin and Nolan there has made that place. It's a giant Instagram photo opportunity and a really cool vibe sitting on the river. The list goes on and on. I just enjoy hospitality industry, and right now supporting hospitality employees who have been through so much this year, so I try to get out to restaurants and those kinds of places, as much as I can and support them.

Justin: Did the grill get built back? I know it caught fire

Tim: Yes. The grill caught fire probably three, four months ago maybe now, and what I've read online is there's insurance issues. I think the gentleman who founded Macaroni grill, which his name is escaping me right now, he still owns the building but lives in California or something now. The grill was chef-owned and operated, and I think there's been some insurance challenges. I think he's working through that process, but that was one of the other staples of food out there.

Justin: The food was so good.

Tim: People would come out there to eat from inside 410 and they're like we had no idea there was a restaurant out here that had this level [laughs][crosstalk]

Justin: It's one of the few places I would travel outside of inside 410 to go.

Tim: Yes, it's great food. I hope it comes back.

Justin: You're hearing more about it. I've heard from people that have worked with you on the board, you get a lot of accolades and a lot of attaboys for really being a transformational leader at the zoo. Is there any leadership advice or leadership books that you've found to be your guiding principles on how to lead people because it's a hard thing to do.

Tim: Yes, well, really it's not a book, it's a philosophy. When I first started at Fiesta, Texas, that park when it opened, was owned by Opryland and USAA, did a joint venture to open that park. If you think about Opryland it's all about shows so Fiesta, Texas was very show heavy when it first opened. It's got the theme rounds of Germany and Crackaxle Canyon, '50s.

Justin: I didn't know that.

Tim: The philosophy in the theater world is management's about backstage supporting the actors on the stage. That translated to everything I've done with management like my job is to support the staff. To me, my org chart is upside down. I'm at the bottom, supporting everyone else above me. That servant leadership is I'm here to make everyone's jobs easier, point, “This is the direction we're going to go, and then I'm going to help you all get there with what you need to do that.”

Then really just supporting each other and having a family environment I think is really important, and also hiring people that are smarter than you. I'm constantly the dumbest guy in the room which is not hard, and then I have great leaders that work at my vice president and director of management level that have just taken us to new limits very quickly in the past six years. People that in San Antonio or that visit us from out of town have seen that I think.

Justin: During the orientation, we're talking about stuff in baskets for Easter and y'all were talking about how y'all were all doing it together, it didn't seem to be a hierarchy like you said. There was no “I'm too good for this.” It was, “This is what it's going to take.” Last two questions, favorite Fiesta event.

Tim: NIOSA, easy.

Justin: Yes? Man.

Tim: Yes, NIOSA, tradition.

Justin: I think you're the first to say NIOSA.

Tim: [laughs] I know I'm crazy [unintelligible 00:11:10] Actually, I love all the Fiesta.

Justin: Me too.

Tim: I look forward to Fiesta more than Christmas. For it to be canceled twice and then be abrupted version, this time was painful, and I never get sick, and I was sick in the week of Fiesta. I made one night of NIOSA, I was not full strength but I plowed through, the rest of it, I slept through the whole thing. I think Taste of the Northside is a really great event now, and that benefits the Brighton Center, which is an amazing organization.

I've really become to love the parades too. The zoo had never had a float in the parades or hadn't for decades, and so we have floats in all of the parades now. [crosstalk]

Justin: Yes, I saw the River last year.

Tim: This year the Cavaliers had raised $1,050,000 for Will Smith Zoo School with one of our donors matching that half.

Justin: That way, the Will Smith Zoo School was one of the beneficiaries of the River Parade this year?

Tim: The key beneficiary.

Justin: I didn't know that.

Tim: The Grand Marshal was Susan Naylor who's on our board and Will Smith was her son that was killed when he was eight.

Justin: Oh, I didn't put that together.

Tim: The Cavaliers during COVID raised &500,000, Susan matched them with $550,000, she wanted to one-up them a little bit I think, because that's Susan's personality. We were the featured charity of choice this year. Actually, it was last year for the Cavaliers, and luckily, they let us ride through it because we really wanted to be part of that parade. The Grand Marshal was Susan Naylor who the school is named after her son, and then the third boat in line was Will Smith Zoo School.

It was fun to get the publicity for that school [crosstalk]

Justin: Does that event change beneficiary every year?

Tim: Yes.

Justin: I didn't know that. The zoo doesn't have their own Fiesta event, do they?

Tim: Yes, we do. [chuckles]

Justin: What is it?

Tim: Festival De Animales. We are the last official Fiesta event, we go to last weekend, and it's really a zoo-wide celebration of the animals, and the culture, and the food, and music of Latin America. It's an event that the zoo has been doing for years. A couple of years ago, we applied to become an official Fiesta event, they're like, “You're in” and so we're the grand finale of Fiesta and it's just [crosstalk]

Justin: How long is it been official Fiesta event?

Tim: Official Fiesta event? Probably, three years now.

Justin: I don't feel as bad. I was a little embarrassed before.

Tim: It's a family fun event.

Justin: Which there needs to be more Fiesta events that are really family-centered.

Tim: We really enjoy and love being a part of Fiesta now. We're such a big part of this community, for us to not have a big float was really a shame. Now, our zoo school kids are on there. We have an annual gala called Zoo Ball, Zoobilation Ball. Three years ago, we started one called Kids Zoo Ball. Kids can have a little kid's version of our Zoo Ball so we have a kid's version and an adult version.

The kid's version, the kids raise money for the zoo, and the boy that raises the most and the girl that raises the most become king and queen of the jungle, and then we've added a court now for three or four other kids so we get more kids involved. Those kids get to ride on our float with our staff and things like that.

It's just a really fun experience to see those floats going down the street.

Justin: I think everybody saw the April fool's joke that the zoo was putting a dome over it, but in all seriousness, we're going to talk about some of the big capital projects upcoming, but do you have a zoo pipe dream, the one that like, “I don't know if we'll ever get there, but if I had unlimited money, here's what I'd want to do.”

Tim: I think we would...