Image Courtesy: Save the Chimps
Save the Chimps is home to more than 200 rescued and retired chimpanzees across a 150-acre property. Canals on the property overflowed, submerging the internal roads normally used to deliver roughly 3,000 pounds of chimpanzee food each day by golf cart.
“Chimps are getting all their food, bananas and oranges on time,” facilities director Mark Yohannan said, to WPTV. A stranded chimp in a flood has received what must have seemed like a gift from heaven, but it was actually a drone that delivered its food. At Save the Chimps, a sanctuary near Fort Pierce, Florida, heavy rain turned familiar paths into waterways and left one chimpanzee temporarily cut off from his caregivers. Rather than let him go hungry, staff turned to a small aircraft with an unusual mission: delivering bananas, blankets, and reassurance from above. Its animals live in elevated care houses and on island habitats, which kept them safe as rainstorms soaked southeast and central Florida from Sunday through Tuesday. But while the chimps themselves were not in immediate danger, the flooding created a serious problem for the people responsible for feeding and caring for them. A high-clearance swamp buggy helped staff keep supplies moving at first, but it eventually broke down. For a sanctuary that depends on daily deliveries of fruit, vegetables, medicine, and other essentials, the flooded roads were more than an inconvenience since it threatened the routine that keeps hundreds of animals healthy. “They’re good. They haven’t missed a beat.”
Staff sent Kaleb food and blankets by drone until he decided to move toward a more accessible area. Video shared by Save the Chimps showed him picking up a banana from a drone-dropped paper bag and eating it, before carefully making his way across a rope stretched over standing water. The image was simple but powerful: a chimpanzee stranded by floodwater, receiving a meal from the sky. The drone did not replace human care. It extended it. Caregivers could not wade through dangerous floodwater, but they could still make sure Kaleb had food, warmth, and a way to reach safety on his own terms.