San Antonio Zoo unveils the world’s tallest gorilla tower at Congo Falls, an immersive habitat offering unique gorilla interactions.
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Zoo hosted a ribbon cutting and grand opening of its long-awaited gorilla habitat, Congo Falls, on Saturday.
Congo Falls is an immersive experience, including three distrinct areas, tropical landscaping, water features and gorilla enrichment zones. One of the main features of Congo Falls is the Mays Family Silverback Peak, which is the tallest gorilla tower in the world at 70 feet high.
“They have plenty of options to interact with each other, to interact with different things, but also room to get away from each other too because just like people sometimes gorillas want breaks from each other as well. So it’s nice to have plenty of space that they can kind of do their own thing also,” Rachel Malstaff, Director of Animal Care at San Antonio Zoo said in an interview with KENS 5 as the exhibit was under construction.
Staff members say daily life for the gorillas will include play, foraging and exercise.
“Some gorillas are trained to brush their teeth like they actually get a toothbrush and brush to keep up with dental health. Like it’s all of these little training sessions that we can do to help keep them healthy for years to come,” Malstaff said.
One interesting aspect of the construction of the habitat is that during the build, a historical discovery was made. Limestone was unearthed from the same quarry that supplied stone for the construction of the Alamo more than 300 years ago.
The grand opening ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. and the celebration will continue through the night with a 15-minute drone show featuring hundreds of illuminated drones. The drone show is for one night only and is free for Zoo members and available to all guests at the park Saturday.
More information on Congo Falls and tickets to San Antonio Zoo are available here.