BELVIDERE, Ill. (AP) — One of Thursday’s tornadoes in northern Illinois struck the Summerfield Zoo in Belvidere, killing an emu and a black swan.
Zoo owner Tammy Anderson says the storm caused an estimated $200,000 in structural damage.
A couple hundred other animals at the zoo were accounted for, and nobody was injured.
Anderson says the zoo’s collection of reindeer rode out the tornado in the open. Their shelters were destroyed, along with many of the zoo’s fences.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the zoo is also home to mountain lions, zebras, ring-tailed lemurs, alligators, giant tortoises and arctic wolves. They also raise Arabian horses.
