Belly Up Don’t monkey around on Mother’s Day: Hit up the orangutan benefit brunch at the zoo

May 8 is Mother’s Day, and one thing that unites all mammals is having been brought into the world by a mother—a mom-mal, if you will. That includes our simian siblings the orangutans, and indeed these intelligent orange-brown creatures have a particularly tight mother-child bond. Mothers train young orangutans to survive in the intense and battle-fraught jungle situations they must navigate and, as a consequence, young ones have much love for moms. Henry Vilas Zoo is paying tribute to these noble orangutan mothers, and addressing the problem of separation between mother and child—construction-driven human expansion into primate territory has made a lot of orangutan orphans—with the Missing Orangutan Mothers (M.O.M.) brunch benefit at 10:30 a.m. in the Henry Vilas Zoo’s Visitor Center. The benefit is part of an effort to preserve an important species and to recognize that the tragedy of losing one’s mother is as deep for an orangutan as it is for a human. Bluephies is donating the food, meaning all proceeds will go to the M.O.M. program. The $25 tickets grant entrance to a brunch-themed feast: Coffee, juice, and a choose-your-own-adventure scrambled egg bar with toppings will be framed up by French toast, fruit, pastries, mini quiches, bacon, sausages, and mimosas.

FATSOMETER: 7. It’s a big meal, but the satisfaction of doing a good deed will melt at least a point off the ol’ Fatsometer.