While we were wintering at Resaca de la Palma State Park, we had many opportunities to explore Brownsville, Texas. One of our favorite spots to return to was the Gladys Porter Zoo! We visit a lot of zoos. This is made possible on our slim budgets thanks to our membership to the Red River Zoo in Fargo, ND. Both Gladys Porter and Red River are AZA members, so our membership at one gets us in free at the other!
The Gladys Porter Zoo is probably the densest zoo we’ve visited! They really used their area well to keep over 370 species of animals within a walking loop of less than a mile. While there are a lot of animals there, they are in no way crowded. Every enclosure looks to be built just right for the species.
Like many Zoos, The Gladys Porter Zoo separated its animals by geographic region. So one would be in an area dedicated to Africa, Asia, North America, or Australian animals. Additionally, they had a small but well-done aquarium dedicated to the species found in the Gulf of Mexico. The best part was undoubtedly the stingray petting tank!
There was so much to see at this Zoo that, while we spent about half the day there the first time, we only saw about 1/2 of the animals! Since our first visit we’ve been back at least twice more and I’m still not confident that we’ve seen it all. This is one Zoo that has definitely made our membership worth it!