I added a bunch of new photos to the Gladys Porter Zoo gallery! Mostly animal photos and some signage. I wasn't able to take a lot of good exhibit photos with my big camera so I took some with my phone camera, I'll have to upload them later. I wasn't able to get good pictures of the Philippine crocodile or the pygmy hippos.
I really wanted to go to the zoo earlier in the year to avoid the extreme heat, but some stuff came up so my scheduling didn't work out. The heat wore me out quicker than expected (I intentionally wore my steel toe boots to get a workout and wear myself out faster, but it worked too well!) so I didn't spend as much time as I planned, but I got a decent amount of photos.
Gladys Porter is not a very big zoo, but it does have some species that you won't find in many other zoos. The crocodilian collection is quite good, with them having saltwater crocodiles, Orinoco crocodiles, the aforementioned Philippine crocodile (a rare species in zoos and in the wild), Cuban crocodiles, and more. They added some tall fencing to some of the outdoor crocodile exhibits. When I was a kid it was just the shorter wooden rail, I think they just got tired of people throwing coins at the crocs. (I won't be surprised if they add it to all the open croc exhibits, there are still a ton of coins in the herpetarium one) There's a nice little hoofstock collection, including the harnessed bushbuck, rare in zoos outside of Africa. There are some very nice bird exhibits as well, including the aviary Macaw Canyon. The aquarium isn't very big, opting to focus specifically on the Gulf of Mexico and Laguna Madre rather than trying to feature species from all over the world.
Another thing that's really cool about the zoo is that part of it is built over a resaca, so you can get around on bridges, and some exhibits are built on small islands you can view from the bridges. And the resaca attracts quite a bit of native wildlife, so you can see some of the birds that make the Rio Grande Valley such a big birding hotspot.
The zoo hasn't changed too much from my childhood, they even still have a lot of the old signage. (NOSTALGIA) Not a fancy place. But nothing was too outdated, the exhibits are still suitable for the animals. Because the zoo isn't very big, it's probably not something you'll want to travel far for, but if you're nearby I say it's worth the visit.
