Auction winner gets to name baby gorilla

The highest bidder at an auction this weekend at a Rio Grande Valley zoo gets naming rights to a nearly 9-month-old gorilla.

Brownsville's Gladys Porter Zoo is putting up for bid the name for the young primate born in January.

His mother is named Martha.

Zoo director Patrick Burchfield tells The Brownsville Herald proceeds from the auction set for Friday night will go to a new education facility, the South Texas Discovery Center.

It's part of a weekend-long fundraising affair where zoo officials hope to raise upwards of $250,000 so the new center can be finished by next spring.

For more information about auction items or to secure a ticket, call the Gladys Porter Zoo at 956-546-7187.