Last Sunday we flew to Sacramento, California to assist with the transport of our chimpanzees. We got our rental vehicle, stocked up on road trip essentials and headed to the hotel for a good night’s rest. At 8am we met our team:
- Dr. Maryanne, Houston Zoo veterinarian
- Sharon, Houston Zoo VP of Animal Operations
- Dr. Andrea, Oakland Zoo veterinarian
- Dennis and Roger, our drivers
- Greg and Carol, the owners of the chimps
- Me, Houston Zoo Curator of Primates and Carnivores
Once the trailer was in position, we began loading the chimps into crates.
A/C, some hay to lie in, and plenty of bananas
All of us were on the road by early afternoon and had a long trip ahead of us. In order to minimize the amount of time the chimps were on the truck we drove straight through, for a total of 42 hours, arriving at the zoo about 11am Wednesday morning. We stopped every few hours at truck stops to check the chimps and feed them. Overall, they seemed to enjoy the trip and I suppose we did too, except for being a bit sleep-deprived.
so good to be home!
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This post was very informative regarding a day in the life of a zoo keeper. Thank you for taking the time to drive these chimps straight through to your destination.
Keep up the good work! Kate
Thanks Kate – it wasn’t a typical day but it sure was a long one!
Can’t wait for the next installment… unloading the chimps and what it seemed like they thought of their incredible new house!
So far they like it a lot – more updates will be coming soon!
Can’t wait to see how the chimps adapt to their new home. Thanks for explaining and showing how the move was accomplished.
You’re welcome Laurie – there will be more updates soon, with photos and video!