photo by / photo par Kim Belley
This past month an extremely hard decision had to be made about having what we all know now as "Tom's tree" taken down. It was sick and would have infected the rest of the tree. Another big risk was that it could have fallen from decay and possibly seriously injured one of the chimps, or fallen on the electric fence. Therefore it was taken down on August 11th. All our hearts sank when we heard the loud crash of Tom's tree when it came down, remembering Tom's first day on the islands and his amazing dash straight to the tree and his heroic climb up to the very top.
It has left a big whole in every ones heart and I am sure the Chimps will feel it as well..
C’est à contre-coeur que nous avons récemment pris la décision de faire abattre ce que nous appelions l’arbre de Tom. Une bonne portion de l’arbre étant malade, il risquait de contaminer la partie encore saine, et aussi de tomber sur quelqu’un et de causer des dégâts. Bien sûr, nous avons eu le coeur lourd en entendant le crac assourdissant qu’il a fait en tombant. Nous nous sommes tous rappelé le premier jour oû Tom a mis le pied sur l’île pour se diriger en courant vers son arbre et l’escalader jusqu’en haut.
Photos by / photo de : Laurence Levesque
As a tribute to Tom a carved wooden bench will be made in his honour. / Un banc sera sculpté à même le tronc de l’arbre de Tom.
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