As Chad mentioned the other day, we’re in the final stretch of building the new open-top outdoor enclosures. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but the time had finally come to start tearing down the original fences so that we could install the last stretch of four fences that will separate the new Young’s Hill from the Bray. The only problem was that a few climbing structures were in path of the new fences, including one of the chimps’ favorites: Carlene’s Tower.
Luckily our friends at Sage Mechanical were on hand to help us do a little redecorating. They plucked the tower out of the ground and drove it to a new location.
And now Carlene’s Tower has found a new home among the evergreens at the very top of the hill, where it us sure to become one of the most popular spots in the renovated habitat.
While the final posts are being set, we’ll be busy winding up all 14 miles of wire from the original fence. Eventually, the insulators will be removed from the old posts and the posts will be used to build more climbing structures.
With over double the acreage, we’ll have a lot of building to do. But our immediate goal is just to get the new fences up and running so the Seven can get back outside and Cy’s group can get a chance to explore before winter. That process alone will take at least a month. As was the case with the original Young’s Hill, the new enclosures will be works in progress, with new play structures, trees, and swings added each year.
