Independence Trail [part I]

Bud and I drove up to Victoria, Texas some days ago with a purpose of,  on our return trip back home, finding and exploring Coleto Creek area and Fannin, Texas, to do a walk-about at the Fannin Battleground, along the Texas Independence Trail.  While in Victoria, we drove into one of the most pretty parks in the whole state of Texas!.....Riverside park.  So many times, I've wanted this very park in OUR town.  I could spend each and every day in this pristine, well-kept, beautiful park with the Guadalupe River, the nature trails, the wildlife, the golf course, the ponds, some historical buildings nearby.  For most of the morning, we traversed along the riverbanks!  On this particular day the morning was sunny, the river was running slowly, the hawks above the tree line were screeching, the bird song was heard most everywhere in the dense trees along the banks.  Nearing midday, we decided to enter the zoo.  The Texas Zoo, housed within the park grounds, is one enjoyable walk exhibiting mainly animals that cannot survive in the wild because of injuries sustained, or other exotic pets that we humans, selfish enough to want something 'wild' that cannot be tamed, donated,  and find themselves in need of the facility.  You can walk the zoo perimeters  in about an hour's time and see most all mammals and bird life here....

I'll share some photos in a multi-part posting.  The first part will be the mammals seen within the compound.

Kristal, the Bengal Tiger - Aesa and Gaia, the Lions


Victoria, the Grey Fox


Coyote and White Tailed Deer


Little Man, the White Nosed Coati - I'm guessing this is an Alpaca [because of the ear shape]


Female Jaguar  - her name is Sophia [on breeding loan from Maryland]

Jax, the Jaguar.  He and Sophia were introduced in 2016.  Jax is the mascot of University of Houston  From the zoo's curator:  "JaX comes from Mato Grosso, Brazil, and he's a beautiful sub-species of jaguar," said Michael Magaw, Texas Zoo animal curator. "Being that they are endangered species, we have initiated a breeding program to help the population."

Meeko the Raccoon and Ringo the Ring-tailed Lemur


Diaz, the Golden Handed Tamarin -and- Bonnie the Ocelot


C. C. and Buddy Lee - Black Handed Spider Monkeys

This is just a part of the mammals seen...along with these, there were tapirs, javelinas, wolves, ring-tailed cats, skunks, other monkeys, different coatis, badgers, bobcats, reptiles, turtles, and more...



Part II will be some of the birds seen at the zoo. Coming soon to a blog near you...