Michael Jackson’s beloved pet chimpanzee isn’t monkeying around with Hurricane Ian on the rampage.
Now housed at the Center for Great Apes in Florida, Bubbles and his fellow residents have been placed in secure spaces as the massive storm touched down in the Sunshine State.
“With the most recent track, it looks like the storm is coming for a visit to the sanctuary!!!” wrote the center’s director Patti Ragan in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
“All the apes and their caregivers will be hunkered down safely inside the night houses with all their food and supplies tonight into tomorrow.”
The Wauchula facility is hurricane-ready, equipped with special rooms specifically designed to protect the apes and orangutans during unpredictable weather.
“The maintenance team has boarded up all the offices and homes, sandbags have been placed in the areas prone to flooding, supplies have been purchased, and our caregivers have prepared the apes’ nighthouses, diets, and special enrichment during the storm.
“They are heated in the winter and strong enough to withstand Florida hurricanes,” the center reassured on its website.
The accommodations also feature roomy hammocks, where many ape and orangutan inhabitants waited out Ian’s approach.
Alongside Bubbles, the center houses around 70 other great apes, many which have bene rescued from lives in the entertainment industry or private zoos. The center occupies 100 acres where its inhabitants are able to roam freely.
With the storm posing a potentially historic threat, Ragan asked supporters for some extra well wishes for Bubbles and his fellow guests, which include apes named Oopsie, Murray, Sandra, Kenzy, Mowgli and Bo.
“Please send some positive pant-hoots and long-calls to us!” she wrote.
Born in 1983, Bubbles was given to Jackson by a Hollywood animal trainer and soon developed a celebrity following of his own.
The chimpanzee developed a close bond with the eccentric performer, appearing in numerous television shows and even touring with Jackson in Japan at one point.
Bubbles arrived at the Center for Great Apes in 2005 and continues to have his care paid for by Jackson’s estate.
Florida animal sanctuaries and zoos across the state scrambled to prepare for Ian’s attack this week.
Here’s everything to know about Hurricane Ian:
Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa and controversial star of the “Tiger King” television series, said she was busy stacking sandbags and nailing up plywood to protect her animals.
“I want to give a huge shout-out to everybody at Big Cat Rescue who has been filling sandbags, and picking up sticks, and chain-sawing away [tree] limbs and covering the windows,” Baskin said.
The refuge’s tigers, bobcats and other residents will be checked on in their cages hourly and fed on a normal routine, the center said.
Zoos and aquariums from Tampa Bay to Orlando have been feverishly girding for Ian’s strike, boarding up vulnerable buildings, sandbagging entryways and placing large animals indoors to ride out the storm.
