At the same time, he was extracting venom from snakes for the biochemists and pathologists who were developing vaccines for military personnel headedoff to Southeast Asia and the tropical Americas. And also by the way you'll be a guinea pig in our active immunization study,' " Burchfield said.īurchfield was one of four GI's who volunteered to be injected with neurotoxic venom from some of the world's deadliest snakes. I need someone to run my snake lab and provide snake venom for the researchers. By coincidence, Flowers had just been tasked with a USAID mission to build a snake venom antiserum production facility in Costa Rica. Herschel Hardin Flowers, at the time the youngest graduate of the University of Florida's veterinary school. His father had heard that the Army was doing something at Fort Knox involving snakes, so Burchfield hopped in his Volkswagen and headed to Kentucky to find out what it was all about.Īt Fort Knox he met a Capt. He volunteered for the Marines but didn't meet the Corps' height requirement, so he joined the Army instead. "He was always saving animals, so we had wild animals in our house from the time I was a small child."īurchfield had graduated to a paid position as zookeeper in Columbus when Vietnam came along. "He would buy a snapping turtle from some kids so they wouldn't hurt it, or bring a bullfrog home, or three red fox kits, which we bottle raised, and ground hogs," Burchfield said. "Bless his heart, he put up with them."ĭespite his queasiness about snakes his father loved all animals, even reptiles, another quality he passed on to his son. "My mom was my accomplice and she supported me, so he had to," Burchfield said. "When I started out as a volunteer at the Columbus Zoo in 1959, as a kid basically, I'd always been interested in reptiles and amphibians and caught them since I was a small boy and dragged them home much to my father's chagrin," he said.īurchfield's dad, with matinee-idol looks and expert marksmanship and archery skills, which he passed on to his son, was petrified of snakes. Colo was the world's oldest gorilla in captivity when she died in 2017 at the age of 60. Burchfield cared for the young western lowland gorilla at Columbus in the early 1960s. This was the same Warren Thomas who, as a second-year veterinary student at the Columbus Zoo, was featured in Life magazine for saving from stillbirth the world's first captive-born gorilla, Colo, in 1956. "I sent them back with fairly extensive changes recommended, and apparently Dr. "I said sure, send them on up," Burchfield said. Burchfield at the time was head keeper of the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo's new Reptilia-Amphibia Hall, but was asked to review Thomas' blueprints by Gladys Portergeneral curator Tom Hoover, who'd been a fellow zookeeper with Burchfield in Columbus, Burchfield's hometown. Thomas, the zoo's first director, to discuss Burchfield's ideas for the new reptile house Thomas was designing. Burchfield, now in his 51st year with the Gladys Porter Zoo, as Brownsville's wild gem celebrates its own half century of delighting and educating visitors.īurchfield's first trip to Brownsville was at the invitation of Warren D. 8-If anyone was born to run a zoo it's Dr. New visitor amenities include a themed indoor café.Nov. A new boardwalk will lead from the Events Center out to a pavilion within the greater kudu exhibit, allowing a 360 degree view into multiple animal exhibits. ![]() ![]() It also includes a zip line that will take guests over 100 feet above the treetops before an exhilarating 35 mph return to the loading deck. The Master Plan proposes major new exhibits, such as an African savanna large enough to accommodate a pride of lions, and a reimagined Small World where children of all abilities create music, enjoy imaginative play, become part of animal habitats and enhance all of their senses. This Master Plan not only represents the future of the Zoo, but it reinforces its place in Brownsville and a commitment from the city to help make it even better,” said Mayor Trey Mendez. It has been a place that has entertained and educated for generations. “The Gladys Porter Zoo has been an integral part of the City of Brownsville for over 50 years. ![]() Pat Burchfield, the Zoo’s Executive Director and Jay Dertinger of PJA Architects highlighted the new exhibits and amenities outlined in the plan, which is intended to serve as a ten-year roadmap that will transform the 50-year-old facility into a bright, modern center for conservation, education and recreation. 4, the Brownsville City Commission unanimously passed a resolution acknowledging and supporting a new Master Plan for the Gladys Porter Zoo.
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