And it just so happened that there were about 30 acres across the street that they subsequently ended up obtaining when they decided to build the zoo. Gladys hired Warren Thomas, as a consultant when they started to get the idea that they wanted to build a zoo. And so that’s how Warren got involved. He was at Omaha as the director at the time. And when Warren started to get with them, he immediately saw that this was an opportunity to maybe establish a zoo that was primarily endangered species oriented. And so he took them on trips to Africa, to Southeast Asia, where they could see the different wildlife and see what they wanted to put together. And then their original concept for the Brownsville Zoo was to have it native Texas animals. And he soon convinced them that the ranchers in Texas were doing quite well with native Texas animals and they didn’t need any trouble, but that the endangered species did.
