Together for ever!
Category: Gaura, Tacugama | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: tacugama
Last week saw the end of Tombo’s quarantine period and so finally we’ve been able to give Gaura a playmate. After a long wait, he was very excited to meet Tombo. With only a small hesitation on Tombo’s part, it took no time for them to bond together, so much so that Tombo wouldn’t let Gaura go at all. It was an amazing introduction that we’ve captured on a few video clips so that you can share the moment…..!
“Gaura, you are mine now”
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“Love at first sight”
“I am not letting you go ever”
After spending many happy hours playing together, Gaura and Tombo finally headed to bed for a well earned night’s sleep. Much to Tombo’s disappointment, Gaura was not so good at sharing his hammock as he was at playing! She finally had to let go of him to get enough space and sleep in her own hammock. The two are now sharing the same quarantine enclosure and really enjoying each other’s company. We’re hoping that we can secure funding soon to allow us to build the additional enclosures we need so that Gaura, Tombo together with Mac, Salva and others will finally start to learn how to live in the forest.
Bed time
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Yesterday saw the opening of the art exhibition at Monarto Zoo in Australia - you may recall that two Australian artists have used photos of Tacugama’s chimpanzees for the basis of their works being displayed. They have kindly offered to give a significant proportion of their proceeds to Tacugama to help with the sanctuary running costs. It sounds like the exhibition is going really well for Leigh Rust and Patrick Hedges - here’s a link to their website Art for Chimps.
Tags: , Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
Quarantine Update
Category: Tacugama | Date: Sep 26 2008 | By: tacugama
Time is flying by in quarantine and Tombo and Urgent have almost finished their 3 month separation from other chimps, Mac has been moved into a bigger cage and Salva is making an amazing recovery from his horrific wounds.
Due to his small size Mac has been living in a smaller cage while building up his health and strength. Last week it was time for him to move into one of the standard quarantine enclosures so that he can really start to climb around and develop some muscles. He’s really enjoying the extra space but he’s still very much Mama Posseh’s little chimp - here you can see him seeking her reassurance as Frankie got too close for his comfort while taking photos for the blog.
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Salva was sedated last week so that we could check his progress. Though he’s eating well and calling to the other chimps, his terrible previous experience of human treatment means that he’s still very nervous of people. Compared to how he first looked on arrival the photos below show you how much he’s recovered, we’re really pleased with his progress.
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We’ll soon be moving Urgent to the same group of night dens that Gorilla, Jetti and Solo occupy. She’ll have her own space but this will give her the chance to gradually get used to chimp company after having no other chimp contact for over 10 years! We’re really not sure how she will react but we know it’s going to take longer to integrate her into a group than for Marion.
Gaura suffered from a small stomach upset last week but he is almost fully recovered. Very soon Tombo and Gaura will share one of the quarantine cages together as she reaches the end of her isolation period. Sadly they will have to stay in the quarantine area until we can raise the funds for the new enclosures as the infant enclosure is already too full. Julianna and Posseh will make sure that they go out every day for exercise and it’ll be great for them to have each other’s company too.
For all chimpanzees, protecting their habitats is key and critical to the eventual release of Tacugama’s residents. It was depressing to see this week that even on our doorstep in the forest reserve, wood cutting continues. We discovered this concealed bundle at the edge of the track leading to the sanctuary. Tommy, one of our forest guards, spotted the wood and so it was confiscated. Although it looks insignificant, dozens of these bundles - young saplings - are being removed every day to supply the demands of construction around Freetown. The Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve reserve is estimated to have lost 25% of its tree cover since 2000, a sobering thought.
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Marion meets her new family
Category: Tacugama | Date: Sep 23 2008 | By: tacugama
Marion is a good natured 3.5 years old female chimpanzee. She arrived at Tacugama last November after being confiscated by an IMATT soldier in a small town named Moyamba, towards the south west of Sierra Leone. She had been kept by people for two years and was mostly free to roam in the town. Maybe that’s why she is so confident and strong-minded.
Marion has had to stay in the quarantine area beyond her allotted three months because of the lack of funding to build the new enclosures that we need. Finally, we decided to try to introduce her to Mama Lucy’s group of 26. It is never easy to introduce a new chimp in an already settled group but Marion is young, female with hints of a strong and determined character so it was worth the try so that she could start to enjoy more space, companionship and the next stages of her rehabilitation.
The introduction process has to be carefully managed so the first step was to prepare a space for Marion in the night dens where Mama Lucy’s group come in to sleep. Marion will need to spend several weeks in here gradually being introduced to her new family so it’s important that she has hammocks and ropes to play with. Early last week Mama Posseh took her from quarantine to her new home while Mama Lucy and her group were out in their forested enclosure, they shared what will probably be their last hug together - a very sad moment for Mama Posseh. Gradually Marion moved away and started to explore the much bigger space that she now has.
On the way to Marion’s new home
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One last hug
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Marion’s first reaction when she saw her new family group coming in to the neighbouring dens for the night was defiant, standing upright with her hair on end and displaying to them… not at all meek even though she’s the smallest! At first she only had only contact with the other chimps through the grill that separates the dens. Next morning we could see Bobbie, Aqua and other youngsters grooming her through the grill. This was going well!
Two days later they were getting on so well we allowed on of them, Bobbie, to join Marion in her den. It took no time for both of them to start playing, chasing and tickling each other…. it was so great to see Marion enjoying being with another chimp! We captured a few moments on video so that you can see the fun for yourselves. The sound you can hear on the video clip is real chimpanzee laughter - Marion just can’t stop laughing!
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This week we have introduced two more youngsters, Kate and Finda, and you would never believe how well Marion has clicked with everyone even though she’s the smallest. Actually Finda seems a little bit jealous and teases her… but Marion doesn’t hesitate to hold her own.
Marion (second from left) with her growing family
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Hopefully with such a good start in meeting the youngsters, Marion will be accepted by the older members of her family too so that it won’t take too long before she can finally belong to a chimpanzee family group as they explore and enjoy their forested enclosure.
Thanks from all of us to Theresa, Yang and Christine for their recent donations
Tags: , Chimpanzee, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
Ice Breaking in Sierra Leone!
Category: Education | Date: Sep 14 2008 | By: tacugama
It’s not an expected port of call for an ice-breaker, but early September saw HMS Endurance, a British Royal Navy ship, call into Freetown, the world’s third largest natural harbour. The ship’s tour of South and West Africa is helping to raise awareness of climate change and its impact on developing nations (find out more here).
It was a great opportunity for some of the school children taking part in our Tacugama Kids Programme to visit the ice breaker, learn about a continent at the other end of the temperature scale and how it’s helping scientists to learn about the impact of human activity on our planet. Over three days 50 children and their teachers from some of our partner schools were welcomed on board by the crew. It was an amazing opportunity for all of them and will hopefully have a lasting impact that will go towards increasing environmental awareness and understanding in Sierra Leone.
Hastings School
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Seeing Antartica for the first time
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Kossoh Town School
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Testing out the helicopter
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Saying thanks
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Russell School
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At the same time an exchange visit was taking place, with some of the HMS Endurance crew volunteering to visit Tacugama to help Pastor with our maintenance tasks at camp. Whilst the rains did their best to slow efforts we managed to complete and cross some of our big to do’s off our list as many hands made light work.
Some of the helping hands
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On the ropes
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We would like to take this opportunity to thank the British High Commission in Sierra Leone and the captain and crew of HMS Endurance for providing a unique opportunity and a very memorable day for all of the children and teachers. The chimpanzees say thanks too - they’re enjoying the improvements to the rigging and platforms in their enclosures!
Tags: Chimpanzee, HMS Endurance, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama
Good news, bad news
Category: Chimpanzee, Gaura, Tacugama | Date: Sep 04 2008 | By: tacugama
Congo, our lady from the wild, has a new brand baby. A tiny furry chimp with pinkish hands and feet holding tight on Congo’s belly….that’s all that we manage to get a glimpse of. What a wonderful surprise! Congo is impossible to get pictures of… she runs away at the sight of a camera, or at anything that points at her. …now she is even more distrustful and unfortunately this picture is the only one we can show you for now….can you see the tiny foot on the left side of Congo? We are keeping our cameras ready for the next opportunity.
Congo carrying her new baby and with her 4 year-old daughter behind
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Philip has run into trouble! In the adult group, he is the alpha male. But Ole is fighting his way through the leadership ranks. Until now there had been no major incidents, a bite here a bruise there. But not anymore, things are turning serious and this time Philip got a deep bite on his eyebrow and on his foot. Dr. Rosa had to knock him down and stitch the flap of skin and muscle hanging over his eye! Thankfully, Philip is a good patient and allows us to clean his wounds every day and takes medicines happily! He is now on his own for treatment, we will let you know further developments when he returns to the group.
Philip - sedated and awaiting treatment
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Willie and Dr Rosa treating Philip’s injuries
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And here is a treat for Gaura’s fans! Enjoy it!
Thanks to Lucia, Meghan and Christine for your recent donations - they’re helping buy the medicines that Philip and Salva need to treat their injuries.
Busy in the quarantine section
Category: Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Aug 25 2008 | By: tacugama
Definitely this is a busy time in Tacugama. With so many new arrivals in a short period of time and the condition in which they arrived, the caregivers and the vet are very occupied.
We are happy to report that Salva is recovering well. Dr. Rosa has sedated him three times to treat his wounds and they are healing well. He has a healthy appetite and for the last three days he has started to accept milk for which he now cries. He is still not allowing us to touch him but accepts food from our hand. I can’t start to imagine how much Salva has endured to be that scared of people.
Salva enjoying a treat (bread) after his sedation
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Mac is growing very fond of his hammock and loves to have naps in it. He is putting on weight, but that is not surprising if you saw the amount of food he can wolf down!
Mac with Posseh enjoying a bit of sun in this rainy month
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Mac always with some food at hand
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Finally we got pictures of Tombo climbing instead of hugging! And she can climb!!! So high and fast that we were concerned she might lose her step! But she did not and now really enjoys her exercise sessions.
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Gaura is now a big boy and at any chance he will display, beating his feet on the bench. We are thinking of enlisting him for tap dance classes! Unfortunately, he is still in one of the quarantine cages, as the next area he should go to is full (20 chimps) and we are waiting to raise enough money to built a new enclosure. It is sad because he loves climbing so much! And the situation will be the same for when Tombo, Mac and Salva have completed their quarantine period!
Urgent is now getting much more used to her new home and becoming very playful. It’s almost impossible to get a picture of her - the one below is the best we can get. We have to sneak up before she spots the camera and pushes it away.
Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
Another rescue from cruel captivity
Category: Tacugama | Date: Aug 18 2008 | By: tacugama
Thursday night brought Tacugama the sad arrival of yet another chimp from the Gola Forest area. Some of the photos in this blog are not for the squeamish, sorry. He was found captive in a village in South East Sierra Leone, but again the circumstances of his capture are unclear as the villagers were unwilling to say much. When news of his existence spread, Gola Forest rangers confiscated him and drove him a long eight hours to Tacugama.
The chimp was carrying what we suspect to be a machete wound to his back and horrendous abrasion injuries to his sides as the result of metal, snare-type wire having been used to restrain him.
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Tags: Chimpanzee, cruelty, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama
Sliding in the rain…
Category: Tacugama | Date: Aug 12 2008 | By: tacugama
The rainy season brings us lots of challenges at the Sanctuary, making sure that the younger chimps don’t catch a chill, fixing endless leaks in staff and chimpanzee accommodation, navigating roads as they wash away so that we can bring supplies to camp and just trying to get anything to dry out. Strangely enough we still quite enjoy the rain, maybe it’s because of the antics that the chimpanzees get up to in the wet!
A few blogs ago we told you about the rain dances that the chimps enjoy. The latest craze that’s now setting in with Baba’s small group of juniors is rope sliding! Before the rainy season, thanks to the ropes donated from the the visiting British Navy ships, we rigged a lot more ropes for the introductory enclosure to make life more interesting for Baba’s group. With the coming of the rains, the ropes are regularly soaked and the chimpanzees have decided that sliding down at high speed is good fun. Today we managed to capture Joko on film as he demonstrated his own special freestyle descent. The film quality’s not great but we thought you might enjoy it… Tacugama’s YouTube debut by Joko:
Tags: Chimpanzee, IMATT, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, VSO, wildlife
How many chimpanzees in Sierra Leone?
Category: Census | Date: Aug 05 2008 | By: tacugama
There is no accurate understanding of current wild chimpanzee numbers in Sierra Leone. What we know is that the forest cover today is only 5% of what it was 100 years ago and that human encroachment of key habitat areas continues at an alarming rate.
Timber collection close to the entrance road for Outamba Kilimi National Park
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Tags: Africa Alive, Augsburg Zoo, Census, Chester Zoo, Chimpanzee, Copenhagen Zoo, funding, PASA, Sweden Chimpanzee Trust
Half year round-up
Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Aug 01 2008 | By: tacugama
Twice a year, we write Tacugama’s newsletter for friends of the sanctuary to catch up on a summary of our news… here´s a copy for you too! Have a read to catch up on what’s been happening at Tacugama over the first half of 2008 - maybe your family and friends would like to see it too!
Please click on this link and not the image below, thanks: http://www.tacugama.com/july08.pdf
Junior back on high
Category: Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Jul 30 2008 | By: tacugama
Great news this week is that we’ve been able to release a fully fit Junior back with his friends, Kouze is especially happy to have Junior back. Thanks again to Drs Sorn and Andrew Routh for their lifesaving surgery. The experience does not seem to have frightened Junior at all, this is one of the first photos we were able to get of him in the enclosures!
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Australian artists staging exhibition
Category: Tacugama | Date: Jul 25 2008 | By: tacugama
We were recently contacted by two Australian artists who learned about Tacugama through a documentary called “Chimps under Fire” from Animal Planet. They’ve been moved to create a series of works that will be exhibited in October at Monarto Zoo in South Australia.
Leigh Rust and Patrick Hedges are not only helping to raise the profile of Tacugama, they’re also donating a large portion of the profits from their works to Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary and the Monarto Zoo to help conservation efforts for our amazing chimpanzees. Their exhibition will coincide with the official opening of Monarto Zoo’s new chimp habitat.
We’re extremely grateful to Leigh and Patrick and we’ll let you all know how the exhibition goes. In the meantime we’re providing photos of the Tacugama families for the guys to use as source materials for their work. Here’s a couple of tasters for you…
…. from Leigh
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And Mac makes three…..
Category: Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Jul 21 2008 | By: tacugama
…. new chimpanzees received by Tacugama in a week. Yes 3, as we posted our last blog about Urgent we received news that another young chimp was on its way to us from the Gola Forest and that evening Mac arrived to join the Tacugama family.
Mac arrives
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Urgent Arrival
Category: Tacugama | Date: Jul 17 2008 | By: tacugama
We have another new chimpanzee at Tacugama – an adult female of about 15 who goes by the name of Urgent (as apparently she’s always in a rush for her food).
Following information we received from the Gola Forest Conservation Programme, the end of last week saw us travelling to the south-east of Sierra Leone, past Kenema to the village of Gorahun. We’d been told of Urgent’s plight and after some checking around realised that, as she is a big chimp, the only option was for us to go and get her. After a total of 5 hours driving and an overnight stop in Kenema, early Friday morning we were joined by Jessica from the Gola Forest team to drive another 2 hours on very rough roads by the edge of the Gola forest (passing the chiefdom where Gaura was found).
Village near Gaura’s home
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Another orphan arrives!
Category: Blogroll, Chimpanzee, Gaura, Tacugama | Date: Jul 10 2008 | By: tacugama
Three days ago we received an urgent call informing us that a baby chimp was being sold at Lumley beach area in Freetown. Our informer was instructed to keep negotiating with the dealer until our arrival.
Willie, our head keeper, and Tommy, wildlife ranger were swiftly dispatched. On their way they picked up two police officers and with their help the baby chimp was confiscated without too much hassle.
The man, a woodcutter from Tombo village situated in the peninsula of Freetown, obviously explained a fancy story that he came across three adult chimps in the bush and when they saw him, they panicked and took off leaving the baby behind.
Tombo village is a gateway by boat to many provincial coastal villages, and we think this baby must have been capture in the south of Sierra Leone and transported into Freetown peninsula for a quick sale. The dealer was in a hurry as he was willing to sell the baby for a mere $25.
Tombo on arrival to Tacugama with Willie
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Continue Reading »
A helping hand from the Navy
Category: Tacugama | Date: Jun 28 2008 | By: tacugama
We’ve had a welcome visit from the British Navy; HMS Albion called into Freetown last week and crew members paid a visit to Tacugama with a few spare hours on their hands. The list of maintenance jobs is always growing and it was great to have the sailors working on our to-do list!
With kind permission from Captain Wayne Keble and Commander Richard Murrison the crew set to work replacing ropes and repairing footbridges despite attempts from local ant populations to stop them in their tracks!
Planning operations
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A kiss gone too far…
Category: Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Jun 24 2008 | By: tacugama
We’re busy at the moment with Boyze, the other adult from Augusta’s group, who is being introduced to Phillip and his adult group. Boyze is a renowned bully and has no regard for anyone younger than him. Ideally, he should have gone with Gorilla and Solo to join the youngsters but it is a huge risk to take and we have decided instead to integrate him with the adult group. It will be a difficult task and we have to exercise a lot of patience to get it right.
BOYZE
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Continue Reading »
Junior saved from a horrible fall
Category: Tacugama | Date: Jun 14 2008 | By: tacugama
Hello everyone, quick greetings from me as I’m still busy with mending camp facilities, chimp integrations and some health issues. We almost lost Junior, a 5 year old from Baba’s group, last week. Thanks immensely to Drs Sorn and Andrew Routh for saving his life and helping out with other health problems in the absence of our resident vet, Dr Rosa. These volunteer vets are a god-send for our poor chimps at Tacugama and we are indebted to them. Dr Sorn’s kindly written a blog about their experiences here….. (the photos of Junior are not for the faint-hearted….)
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Dirty Dancing
Category: Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Jun 06 2008 | By: tacugama
The rains are here and I’ve been really busy with lots of maintenance work at the sanctuary and some new introductions. Sorry for not giving you as much regular news recently but thanks for your comments and donations. We appreciate them very much.
Little Gaura is fine. Gorilla is doing well in Baba’s group. Boyze, another adult male is being introduced to Phillip’s group as he was previously with Gorilla and Augusta. It started well but we’ve had some hic-ups and are progressing slowly. It is not easy to introduce an adult male into a well established adult group!
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Radio Call from Cheeta!
Category: Chimpanzee, Education, Gaura | Date: May 18 2008 | By: tacugama
Cheeta managed to nick the two way radio from Willie and was happily going around, showing off her new toy to the rest of her gang. We tried all sorts of ways to get it back but she was proving to be much smarter than us. She was getting excited hearing her name coming out of the radio and all the attention from the chimps and staff as everyone was following her. The entire Tacugama team was having a good laugh. I wanted to join in….but just the thought of buying another radio for $400 did not permit me. 48 hours gone, the battery has gone flat and the chances of finding the bloody radio in this thick forest is very slim! Cheeta wins! You can bet we’ll be looking at how to secure those radios better….
Cheetah holding her prize aloft, safely out or reach….
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Continue Reading »
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About Bala
Bala Amarasekaran abandoned his original career as an accountant to establish Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in 1995. Together with the Government of Sierra Leone, he is working to secure the welfare and future of chimpanzees in Sierra Leone. -
Donations Received
- Oct 3rd Yang H. USD60.00
- Sep 25th Wildatart . USD20.00
- Sep 21st Lucia C. USD100.00
- Sep 17th Christine C. USD20.00
- Sep 10th Theresa S. USD20.00
- Sep 3rd Yang H. USD60.00
- Sep 1st Meghan H. USD25.00
- Aug 25th Wildatart . USD20.00
- Aug 19th Lucia C. USD100.00
- Aug 17th Christine C. USD20.00
- Aug 10th Theresa S. USD20.00
- Aug 5th Mills C. USD100.00
- Aug 3rd Yang H. USD60.00
- Aug 1st Tanya S. USD200.00
- Jul 30th Anita M. USD30.00
- Jul 25th Wildatart . USD20.00
- Jul 17th Lucia C. USD100.00
- Jul 17th Sherri S. USD30.00
- Jul 17th Christine C. USD20.00
- Jul 17th Wanda H. USD25.00
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