Center for Great Apes facts for kids

The Center for Great Apes is a special home for great apes located in Wauchula, Florida. It's a safe place for orangutans and chimpanzees who have been rescued. These apes might have come from the entertainment industry, from research, or from being kept as pets.

The Center's main goal is to give these apes a permanent, caring home. They also teach people about great apes and why it's important to protect them. This includes helping apes in the wild and encouraging people not to use apes as entertainers or pets.

The Center for Great Apes is the only orangutan sanctuary in North America that is officially recognized. It provides lifelong care for orangutans and chimpanzees, both of which are endangered species. The Center is a private, non-profit organization. This means it doesn't get money from the government. Instead, it relies on donations from people and grants from foundations.

Taking care of each ape costs about $36,000 every year. This money helps pay for their food, medical care, and fun activities. The sanctuary is also a founding member of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA). It is also approved by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.

The Center for Great Apes offers its orangutans and chimpanzees about 2 miles (3.2 km) of aerial trailways - allowing them to explore the sanctuary.

Meet the Apes

Many interesting apes live at the Center for Great Apes. Each one has a unique story!

• Bubbles – This chimpanzee used to live with singer Michael Jackson.
• Bella – She was famous for a Super Bowl commercial in 2004 for CareerBuilder.
• Sam "Sammy" (no longer at the Center) – He starred in the movie Dunston Checks In.
• Sandra – This orangutan was declared a "non-human person" in Argentina. She lived at the Buenos Aires Zoo for 20 years before coming to the Center.
• Sunshine – She was born in England. Her mother was owned by singer Tom Jones’ manager.
• Bo and Joe – These two chimpanzees used to live at a facility that was shown in the Netflix series Tiger King.
• Marco – He is the oldest and smallest chimpanzee at the Center.
• Jonah and Jacob – These two are twin chimpanzees. Jonah acted with Mark Wahlberg in the 2001 movie Planet of the Apes. Both twins also appeared in the original “Trunk Monkey” commercials.
• Mari – She is an orangutan who has special needs. Mari lost both of her arms when she was a baby, before she came to the sanctuary. Even without arms, she is very capable.
• Knuckles – This chimpanzee had a condition called cerebral palsy.
• Allie – She has a condition called Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP). This condition makes it hard for Allie to use her legs or feet.

Jonah, the chimpanzee, plays in a tub as part of an enrichment program at the Center for Great Apes

Sunshine with her daughter Cahaya and friend Keagan at the Center for Great Apes

Marco the chimpanzee at the Center for Great Apes was wild-caught in Africa and sold to a circus in America and then sold to a family. He arrived at the Center for Great Apes in 2005.

Mari, a pure Sumatran orangutan, arrived at the Center for Great Apes from a language and cognition study in Georgia. She is a very special orangutan in that she has no arms due to an accident prior to her arrival at the Center for Great Apes. She is very capable.