What an amazing shot! I bet many in the zoo world are already dreaming up new gorilla enclosures incorporating water features in the hope of being the first zoo in the world to exhibit swimming gorillas.My head was filled with the famous images of macaques sitting in thermal pools during snowy weather.You never know what new tricks animals will come up with - you can never rule anything out.
Watching the 3 generations of gorillas at Gladys Porter Zoo is one of the great zoo experiences in America, and the zoo is a wonder to behold in terms of exotic and rare creatures. The gorillas eagerly leap into the water at every opportunity, and I uploaded a number of photos of several apes searching for food in their moat. The 2007 zoo history book devotes an entire chapter to gorillas, including a genealogy chart of 32 of the apes that have lived or continue to live at Gladys Porter Zoo.
One terrible tragedy that occurred was on January 6th, 2002, when the gorilla holding area filled with chlorine gas. Pandemonium ensued, and although all of the apes were affected by the gas only 3 perished.
How far does the water serve to act as a barrier? Sorry for my Limey ignorance - where in the US is this, and is the enclosure capable of being used for 12 months?
The exhibit is sort of a pit enclosure with a high wall around it. The GPZ is in far south Texas (just a few miles from Mexico) and is a sub tropical climate where a freeze is a rarity.
Gladys Porter Zoo is in Brownsville, Texas, and I think that it is almost directly next to the Mexican border. The heat can be overwhelming in summer and the gorilla enclosure is capable of being utilized year-round. There is a large and active troop and a secondary exhibit with a pair of elderly gorillas, but the zoo is packed with apes as there are also orangutans, chimpanzees and several species of gibbon. The water is used as a swimming pool, and the troop might be the only gorillas in captivity that regularly dive-bomb into their moat. However, high walls keep them contained and seeing them is quite an amazing experience.
You can do so much more when the climate permits. I remember being amazed just how lush the spider monkey and siamang enclosures were in Auckland, New Zealand, which has a sub-tropical climate as well.
