Get ready, Rio Grande Valley kids. Gladys Porter Zoo announced Thursday that the zoo will be open from March 4 through April 4, seven days a week.
Zoo officials made the decision on Wednesday after receiving calls from the public asking if the zoo would be open during Spring Break, said Cynthia Galvan, the Zoo’s spokeswoman.
Galvan said zoo staff reviewed the calendars a decided it would be good to open the zoo in March and the first few days of April, so children on Spring Break could have a place to visit.
New to the zoo will be an exhibit featuring nurse sharks. This will be the first time these sharks will make an appearance at the zoo.
These two male nurse sharks were brought from the Mississippi Aquarium and are now living in our 30,000 Gulf of Mexico tank found in the Russell Aquatic Ecology Center, the zoo announced in a press release.” Ours are about five feet long and are definitely larger than any other species we have ever housed!”
“They are very much like house cats: they like to relax on the bottom of the ocean, often in groups of two to five and sometimes lying right on top of one another,” states Senior Aquarist, Dan Goggin.
Because of the ongoing pandemic, social distancing and facial coverings are required. Individuals planning to visit the zoo should make reservations online to ensure they are allowed to go inside the zoo since there is a limit on capacity. Galvan said she would hate for anyone to show up and not be able to get in because the zoo has already reached its capacity.
“We encourage everyone to try and make reservations,” she said.
Zoo hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from March 5 through March 13, and from 9 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. March 14 through March 4.
The zoo had only been open on the weekends because of the pandemic.
