Video taking off 19x its usual first day

A drone brings Caleb lunch across Florida sanctuary floodwaters

NBC News shows how Save the Chimps staff reached an isolated chimpanzee when flooded roads stopped their vehicles.

Channel:

NBC News Story of November 11, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 257,575 views a day, 18 times a normal first day on this channel (13,895).

Drone delivers food to stranded chimpanzee after Florida flooding

The paper bag lands, and Caleb gets to work opening it. Inside are a banana and sweet peppers, delivered by air because the sanctuary's usual food run could no longer reach him.

NBC News correspondent Ryan Chandler's report follows the improvised delivery at Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida, where severe flooding submerged roads and cut off enclosures. More than 200 chimpanzees were safely inside, but Caleb had remained out on an island.

"He was out and he wasn't coming in. We were quite worried," sanctuary CEO Ana Paula Tavares says.

With high water blocking the vehicles, staff turned to a drone they had acquired less than a year earlier. Footage shows it dropping the bag, followed by Caleb opening his delivery and eating. Tavares says the aircraft has helped them transport food and fluids across the flooded grounds.

The Short drew roughly a quarter of a million views in its first day, far beyond NBC News's usual opening audience for that format. Comments arrived more than twenty times as fast as usual, with viewers making food-delivery jokes and pointing to the practical use of the drone.

Chandler ends with reassurance, but also a repair bill: Caleb and the other chimpanzees are safe and fed, while multiple sanctuary vehicles and golf carts have been damaged. Getting lunch to Caleb solved an immediate problem; restoring the equipment needed for everyday feeding is part of the recovery still ahead.

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What viewers say

Probably the best use of a drone I've ever heard.
@debbiej.2168See it on YouTube
Chimp: "Finally...my Uber food has arrived"
@jakep1979See it on YouTube
He will look at all birds differently now
@SouthpawFade2See it on YouTube

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