Center for Great Apes July eNewsletter

Adopt-a-Palooza Returns

July has officially arrived, and that means one of our favorite traditions is back!

Adopt-a-Palooza is our month-long celebration of the incredible orangutans and chimpanzees who call the Center for Great Apes home and an opportunity to help even more people form a meaningful connection with them through symbolic adoption.

This year, we're setting our biggest goal yet:

150 brand-new adoptions by July 31.

While we'll spend the month spotlighting 31 wonderful residents on social media who are especially hoping to welcome new adoptive parents, every brand-new adoption this month counts toward our Adopt-a-Palooza goal, no matter which ape captures your heart.

Whether you've always loved one particular resident or discover a new favorite along the way, your new symbolic adoption helps provide the individualized care, nutritious diets, enrichment, veterinary care, and safe sanctuary each of our residents deserves.

Meet This Year's Adopt-a-Palooza Featured Residents

Throughout July, we'll introduce you to these 31 incredible apes, sharing their unique personalities, favorite foods, friendships, quirks, and sanctuary stories.

Chimpanzees: Angel, Bentley, Billy, Brooks, Candy, Chloe, Crystal, Hannah, Jeeter, Josh, Kenzy, Kerry, Kodua, Mikayla, Mystery, Sabina, Sha Sha, and Stryker.

Orangutans: Bailey, BamBam, Chuckie, Connie, Jam, Jethro, Keagan, Louie, Pongo, Pumpkin, Radcliffe, Sinbad, and Tango.

These featured residents range from outgoing personalities to some of our quieter, more reserved apes who may not always be in the spotlight. Each one has their own story to tell, and we can't wait to introduce them to you throughout the month.

Of course, if another resident has already stolen your heart, that's wonderful too! Every new symbolic adoption helps us move one step closer to our goal of welcoming 150 new adoptive parents this July.

A Special Thank You

As a special thank you, every new adoption made during July will receive one of our limited-edition ape-painted Adopt-a-Palooza postcards. No two are exactly alike—each features artwork created by one of our orangutan or chimpanzee residents, making your postcard as unique as the ape you've chosen to support.

Whether you're becoming an adoptive parent for the very first time or introducing a friend or family member to the program with a gift adoption, you're helping ensure every resident continues to receive the lifelong care they deserve.

Follow along on our social media pages all month long, meet each featured ape, and help us make this our biggest Adopt-a-Palooza yet.

Adopt-a-Palooza

Inspiring the Next Generation Through Enrichment and Education

Recently, the Center for Great Apes welcomed students from the local Hardee High School STEM Summer Camp for a special morning of learning, service, and hands-on experience at the sanctuary.

The visit began with an introduction to one of the most important aspects of ape care: enrichment. Students learned how enrichment helps keep orangutans and chimpanzees mentally stimulated, physically active, and engaged in natural behaviors. Just as people benefit from challenges, hobbies, and new experiences, great apes thrive when given opportunities to solve problems, explore, and make choices throughout their day.

After learning about the importance of enrichment, the students got to work creating enrichment items that would later be enjoyed by the apes. The group assembled pinecones stuffed with condiments and rice cereal, repaired several well-loved Snack-N-Spin devices that had begun to show signs of wear, and built Rotary Feeders designed to encourage problem-solving and foraging behaviors.

Their hard work provided our enrichment team with valuable supplies while giving the students a firsthand look at how creativity, engineering, and animal care often work hand in hand.

Following their volunteer project, the students enjoyed a guided tour during which they met many of the sanctuary's orangutans and chimpanzees. They were especially excited to see some of the apes interacting with enrichment devices similar to the ones they had helped create earlier that morning, bringing their lessons full circle.

Programs like this help inspire young people to explore careers in science, animal care, conservation, veterinary medicine, engineering, and nonprofit work while fostering a deeper appreciation for great apes and wildlife conservation. The Center is committed to providing educational opportunities for students, and we would love to expand programs like this for middle school, high school, college, and other educational groups.

If your school, club, or educational organization is interested in learning more about customized educational experiences at the sanctuary, please contact our Donor Relations Team.

In Case You Missed It: Update on Toby

In his first three weeks at the Center for Great Apes, Toby has already captured the hearts of our staff.

He is settling into his new routine and seems to really enjoy the enrichment items and activities provided each day. One of his new adoptive parents even sent him a big box of toys from Chewy! The large Kong ball has quickly become a favorite, with Toby kicking it around in his own version of soccer... and occasionally balancing it on his head. He's also learning to "fish" for treats hidden inside enrichment puzzles using branches as tools. At first, he kept handing the branches back to his caregiver to do it for him, but once he figured out how they worked, he quickly became a pro.

While Toby is still being offered some of the special foods he enjoyed in his previous home, he is also beginning to eat more fruits and vegetables. If he doesn't care for something, he politely hands it back to his caregiver and walks away. If he likes the way a new food smells, he may set it aside to try later. And if he loves it, he'll eat it right away.

For now, Toby remains in the new arrival quarantine area while our veterinary staff continue to monitor his health. Whenever staff pass by his area, Toby greets them with a big play face, vocal invitations to stop and visit, and even claps to make sure they notice him. He is proving to be a very social chimpanzee.

When he is ready, Toby will move to one of the chimpanzee habitats, where he will begin the gradual process of meeting his new neighbors. We look forward to sharing more updates as Toby continues to settle into sanctuary life.

July Birthdays