The Suncoast Primate Preserve...

Had more touring to do today... yes, the kids last day here in Sunny Florida, or "Floridada" as Gwenny would tell you!

Judy picked up some Groupons on the internet, to visit the Suncoast Primate Preserve, up at Tarpon Springs on the Gulf Coast. This is kind of a neat Primate Preserve/Hospital/Rescue Center. They are not for profit and only for the benefit of the animals. The front entrance does not look like much, but a lot is happening inside this place.

 

The Animals inside this Sanctuary have all been donated/returned/rescued...you name it. They do not collect animals, only offer santuary to those in need. For example, there was one monkey that was a "service monkey" for most of his life, but is now retired in this santuary.

In talking with the owner of the property, she was telling me there were 10 monkeys given to the Santuary by a very large Pharmaceutical Company. They were used for medical research involving diabetes. The Company no longer had a use for them, so they actually paid to have 10 very large pens built for these monkeys to live the rest of their lives in, and also donated $250,000.00 to the Santuary to ensure their continued good fortunes at the Centre. A lot better than putting the monkeys down, from what I could see.

Above are some of those pens built for monkey housing...they sure give them all lots of toys to play with.

This Lemur above, was one of the Pharm Monkeys... he is doing quite well and appeared pretty happy as he was climbing all over the place just acting like a monkey.

Check out this encounter below...

Yes, for the first time in my life, I was hanging on to an Alligator! He is 1 1/2 years old, and lives in the Santuary. He had a piece of tape around his mouth, so it was safe for Gwenny to come and give him a pet. Gwenny kind of liked him, and gave him a few rubs!

 

This turtle was leading the easy life inside the Sanctuary...

 

Some of my pictures are a little blurry tonight, sorry... they had to be emailed to my iPad for posting, and lost something in the translation from the laptop. Also I know I am having problems with people clicking on my pics and getting sent to the Flickr Sign Up page... Will have to wait till I get back to the RV to fix that one.

There was no shortage of monkey business going on this afternoon. Check out this video I shot of this one monkey below...

It kind of reminded me of Charlie laughing all the way home in the car when we left the Sanctuary...

No, I am not comparing Charlie to a monkey...lol... but I thought they both were pretty funny...

We stopped on the way home at the Sunshine Bridge on Highway 275, east of Tampa. There is a great waterfront rest area we enjoyed while Charlie had his dinner!

Unfortunately, all the good times come to an end, and Chris and Kristina along with the crew, will be leaving for the flight back home to Toronto tomorrow afternoon. They will leave here first thing in the morning! Will be 3 months till we catch up with them again, not counting Facetime!!!!!

Safe trip home you guys!

Till tomorrow...

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