Posts Tagged ‘road trip’

Jul
17

Road Trip! Chimps on Their Way to the Houston Zoo

Posted by in African Forest,Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees

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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Jul
10

Chimp Building Update: Finishing Touches

Posted by in African Forest,Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees

The building is almost done. There’s a bit more work to do and then its up to us to get everything cleaned up and ready for the chimps. I say “we” in the general sense, I’m  leaving all this up to Judy, our newest supervisor, because tomorrow morning I fly to California to pick up the chimps.

almost there...

We’ve talked about where zoos get their animals but have you ever wondered how? The answer depends on the animal – some we ship cargo on commercial airlines or FedEx, others come on land via a professional animal shipper or we just go pick them up ourselves. This shipment is a bit unusual and we’re using a combination of methods. Three Houston Zoo staff, including me, are flying to California, where we will rent a vehicle and meet a professional animal shipper. All of us, plus Greg and Carol, who owned the chimps, will then load them up Monday morning and we’ll all drive to Houston.

The shipper has a large climate controlled trailer with 10 comfortable crates for the chimps. We’ll be driving straight through but will stop regularly to check on the chimps and provide food and water. We expect the trip to take about 40 hours, and if weather and traffic cooperate and should get to the zoo Wednesday morning.

For more updates from the road next week, follow @HZIChimps on Twitter.

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