LIGHTNING STRIKES!
Category: Tacugama | Date: Jun 24 2009 | By: tacugama
It never rains but it pours… Now the rainy season has started to make a big impact – and not just with the water… yesterday afternoon a huge electrical storm passed over the sanctuary and we were hit by lightning. As storms are common in Sierra Leone’s rainy season all of our electric fencing that surrounds the enclosures is protected with lightening conductors but yesterday’s strike produced much more power than even they could dissipate.
As we rushed to check our monitoring equipment and the fences we discovered that the strike had caused significant damage to our installations. Much of yesterday was spent painstakingly tracking cabling and switches to see how bad the damage was.
Bala and Pastor checking for damage
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We’ve been incredibly lucky that none of our staff or chimps were hurt by the strike, though Willie and our new volunteer Tess, who were in the office at the time, received mild shocks. That’s about where the luck ends…
The list of damaged equipment includes battery energisers, cut-out switches, alarm monitors and the lightening arrestors. The cost of repairs and replacements will get close to US$3000 and most will have to be sourced overseas. We’re busy making emergency repairs and making sure that the chimps can safely continue using the forested enclosures.
Moses monitors the power to the electric fences as Urgent, Salva and Jetti look on
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We would like to ask you for your help please; whatever you can do to help us with the costs of repairing the electrical equipment would be much appreciated. It’s not easy to plan for this kind of event and we appreciate your support.
We really hope that in our next blog we will be back to giving you some positive news and stories about the chimps - thanks for all your support and sympathy for Mark and Cheetah. Your comments really help.
Tags: Chimpanzee, Sierra Leone, Tacugama
Sad days at Tacugama
Category: Tacugama | Date: Jun 23 2009 | By: tacugama
Sorry we’ve not been blogging as much over the last couple of weeks - it’s been a tough time here at Tacugama recently.
We were catching up with ourselves after the month long intensive health check programme and putting all the paperwork in place in mid-May when one of the chimpanzees in Mama Lucy and Joke’s group, Mark, failed to come in from the forested enclosure as usual at the end of the day. Joke also failed to come in and was sitting at the top of one of the tall trees calling to the care staff. The rest of the group came into the dens but with Joke in the enclosure there was no way for us to go and look for Mark. Joke has grown into a strong and powerful male and we can take no risks. Joke finally sensed that we were trying to help and came into the dens but with the light failing, looking for Mark proved unsuccessful that evening. We were out again at first light the next morning and sadly found Mark dead, another likely victim of EMCV. It was a bitter moment as we had just completed all the vaccinations but it takes time for resistance to develop and for poor Mark it was too late. It was a sad end to an intensive and positive programme with great team work from all our staff, volunteers and the Max Planck team but demonstrated just how vitally the protection from EMCV is needed.
Shortly after we bade farewell to Ruud and Esther, who together with a Euro 1000 grant from Stichting AAP in Holland were able to improve the enclosures for the younger chimps while they also provided good support for the health checks. Ann and Michel left a couple of days later and Ann is now working from the Max Planck Institute helping to follow up on EMCV and the vaccination programme. (Michel has just joined the Lola ya Bonobo team for a few weeks to support the health checks on the bonobos there due for re-introduction).
Just as we were celebrating Willie’s award as a 2009 Disney Conservation Hero, we were struck by further sad news. Cheetah, who had recovered amazingly well from her suspected EMCV attack in April, suddenly started to deteriorate rapidly suffering fever and breathing difficulties. Despite full attention from Dr Rosa and the team, Cheetah sadly passed away leaving us all feeling very hollow. Cheetah was one of the original eight chimps who founded the sanctuary and with her strong and determined character helped with our drive to keep Tacugama going through our difficult early days.
As you can imagine, it’s not always easy to communicate bad news so we’re sorry for our recent reduced contact, we hope you understand. We’ll be back to bringing you our regular news over the coming days.
Tags: Chimpanzee, Max Planck, Sierra Leone, Stichting AAP, Tacugama
Gun shots alarm the census team
Category: Census, Tacugama | Date: Jun 09 2009 | By: tacugama
Dr Terry Brncic reports back from her team’s most recent census visit to the Outamba Kilimi National Park (OKNP) in the north of Sierra Leone on behalf of Tacugama:
Outamba Kilimi National Park is currently the only national park in Sierra Leone. Located in the far north of Sierra Leone on the border with Guinea, it is divided into the larger Outamba section in the east and Kilimi section in the west of northern Bombali district. The terrain is relatively flat with low rolling hills and plateaus offering excellent views across the spectacular landscape.
Thin strips of darker riverine forest running through the woodland savanna, and some of the spectacular hills across OKNP
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The vegetation is primarily open parkland, with tall elephant grass and enough trees to offer some shade and give chimpanzees somewhere to nest. With good visibility we were able to see many animals, including buffalo, red-flanked duiker, olive baboons, Maxell’s duiker, black & white colobus monkeys and Campbell’s guenon. We observed many elephant signs, including fresh tracks and dung, but weren’t lucky enough to spot an elephant.
The census team records a pile of elephant dung
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We also came close to chimpanzees, hearing their calls and finding very fresh droppings, but they were too elusive for us to actually see. At the end of the dry season the brittle elephant grass and crackling leaves usually gave our presence away despite our efforts to move quietly.
Following a transect through tall elephant grass
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We split into four small teams, each with a local guide, covering 2 km of transect each day and meeting at a new camp most nights. To move all our supplies and food for two weeks in the Outamba section we needed 13 porters. We were a big group, 28 in total, providing some much-needed employment for the communities living outside the park borders.
A line of porters bringing our food and equipment into the park
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May is the end of the dry season in Sierra Leone, and this year seemed to be a particularly dry one. From the eastern side of Kilimi, where normally there should have been a river about 150 meters wide dividing Sierra Leone from Guinea, the still water sat in hot stagnant pools. We were able to step over the river at a point where it was a foot wide and walk into Guinea, which was fun for the team as it was the first time most of them had ever been out of Sierra Leone, even if only a few, unofficial metres! Water shortages were common in many of the villages we visited inside and outside of the park.
The Kaba, or Little Scarcies, River in the dry season
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In all we walked 82 km of transects between the Outamba and Kilimi sections of the park and found signs of many animals, including hundreds of chimpanzee nests. The chimps most often nested in the thin strips of riverine forest but we also found many nests in the savanna woodland. The nest counts on the transects will help us get a good estimate of the chimp population in OKNP and because there are few villages outside of the park, it is likely that there are significant chimpanzee numbers across most of northern Bombali district. We will investigate this when we come back to survey the rest of the district.
Chimp nests overlooking Guinea
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Census team member Farah Kargbo with a fresh chimp nest made on the ground
(This is a rare site as chimpanzees very rarely nest on the ground)
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OKNP has a lot of potential for tourism for Sierra Leone. The open woodland allows great views of animals: monkeys and baboons are common, elephants and chimps are present, hippos can be seen from a river boat ride, there are great birdwatching opportunities, and plenty of hills for stunning scenic overlooks. The park is easily accessible on foot and the headquarters is being developed beautifully to house visitors, offering a good base for in-park trekking.
Mame Hill in the Outamba section of OKNP
(‘Mame’ means ‘Wait for me’ in the local language, and this iconic bare hill was a frequent meeting place for hunters)
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Unfortunately there are some serious conservation issues within OKNP and the relationship between the communities and park management is strained. When we arrived, park guards had not been allowed to circulate in the park for the last three months because of threats from the communities in the Outamba section and poaching has become a serious issue. Unlike whene we were in the Western Area Peninsular Forest Reserve near Freetown, we did not come across a single snare, but every night we heard gunshots. Guns are easy to obtain from Guinea and we even came across a gun trader moving openly in the park during the day.
Bushmeat is an important source of income for the communities in the park, and we know chimpanzee meat is a part of that. One of our teams found the remains of a skinned chimpanzee in a hunting camp the Kilimi section. Each year the park is essentially burned to clear the elephant grass. It is unknown what long-term effect this has on the biodiversity or whether it is feasible to control the fires. Communities in the park are also clearing land for farming and the farms also attract animals that can then be hunted more easily.
Remains of a chimpanzee skin in the Kilimi section of OKNP
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A cleared farm near Yatia village in the north of Outamba
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It’s a tough situation for a poor country to address. Park guards desperately need training and support in order to have any impact on poaching. We were pleased to see the evidence of chimpanzees that we were expecting but it is also clear that this beautiful area urgently needs a lot more investment and support to function effectively as a national park and for the protection of the wilderness and wildlife to be successful.
Terry’s team are now surveying in the Loma mountains, the home of Sierra Leone’s highest mountain - Mount Bintumani (1947m), in Kailahun district. Expect the next report from them at the end of this month.
Tags: Census, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
Disney Conservation Hero Award Announced for Tacugama
Category: Tacugama | Date: May 28 2009 | By: tacugama
We’re very proud to be able to announce that our supervisor, Willie Tucker, has been recognised as a Disney Conservation Hero for 2009. The reward recognises Willie’s commitment to the conservation of chimpanzees through his dedicated work at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Willie has worked here since the founding of the sanctuary and contributed in so many ways to its development and achievements.
To read PASA’s full press release on Willie’s award then please follow this link.
From all of the team at Tacugama - congratulations Willie, your award is well deserved!
Tags: Chimpanzee, Disney Conservation Hero, PASA, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama
Young Bruno joins the famous five!
Category: Gaura, Introduction, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: May 08 2009 | By: tacugama
After such a sad week last week, we are pleased to be able to bring you better news this week.
It was finally time for young Bruno to leave quarantine and join the famous five: Gaura, Tombo, Mac, Bai Nyaa and Jessica! He could tell the day was different and seemed very happy to accompany Mama Posseh as she walked him over to the rest of the babies.
Everyone behaved very well when the first polite introductions were made, but it didn’t take long for the senior babies - Gaura and Tombo - to test Bruno with some vigorous play! We decided to take them for a short walk while Bruno had a chance to get to know Mac, Jessica and Bai Nyaa so that by the time Gaura and Tombo came back Bruno started to lay down a few rules of engagement. It was just what Gaura needed - he was in danger of becoming a bad bully but young Bruno is big enough and bold enough to keep Gaura in his place and they’re quickly becoming the best of friends. Even little Mac is getting braver to join in the games.
Bruno extends a greeting to Jessica
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The next day saw Bruno happily accompany Mama Posseh and Esther for the daily walk to the forest - it’s getting to be a big walking party these days. He had an amazing time as, for the first time in at least three months, he was free to climb and play in the forest.
Gaura and Bruno have a great time!
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Meanwhile our newest arrival - Yoyema - is benefitting from lots of necessary attention and treatment. She’s had a thorough check out and the poor little thing was full of tapeworm, one of the reasons she was so thin and unhappy. Mama Posseh is on a well-earned week off so Esther has stepped in to bath, cuddle and help with Yoyema’s care. Yoyema’s just starting to show signs of putting on a bit of weight and becoming a bit less lethargic. She’s also using her left hand more and more so we’re hopeful she won’t be too handicapped by the damage she sustained before she was confiscated.
Cheetah’s gentle recovery is continuing and she’s now able to move around her den without the support of overhead sticks, though she’s still very cautious as she moves around. We’re so pleased with how she is now compared to a month ago.
Marcel is also making a strong recovery. Fortunately he was nowhere as nearly badly affected as Cheetah though we continue to monitor him carefully and keep him indoors. The health check team are progressing very well and almost all the chimps have now undergone their EMCV vaccination and thorough examinations. We’ll hopefully be finished this weekend.
Tags: Chimpanzee, EMCV, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
EMCV strikes again with tragic consequences
Category: Tacugama | Date: Apr 29 2009 | By: tacugama
This has been a sad, long weekend for all of us at Tacugama and it’s looking very much that EMCV is the cause. Just as we are working hard to get all the chimps vaccinated against EMCV, the virus has struck again causing the death of two of our chimpanzees and leaving a third one ill. We already have Cheetah battling to recover from the infection that struck her almost a month ago. As you can imagine it is so upsetting and frustrating as we currently have a team working hard at camp to vaccinate all of the chimps against this virus but we had not yet reached those who succumbed in the last few days.
It was last Wednesday that the care staff raised the alarm for Marcel and Kate, both in Joke and Mama Lucy’s group. They came into the night dens looking very weak and disoriented, much the same as Cheetah earlier in the month. We spent an anxious night monitoring them - there are no real remedies available - and were pleased with how they appeared a little stronger the next morning. Mid afternoon on Thursday disaster struck as they both started vomiting and deteriorated rapidly. The team working on the vaccinations were available to take the best possible care but despite this poor Kate quickly passed away with nothing that we could do to save her. Marcel fortunately stabilised and so far does not seem to have been as badly affected as Cheetah.
Marcel is fortunately recovering
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Tags: Chimpanzee, EMCV, Max Planck, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, Taronga Zoo, wildlife
New Places to Play
Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Apr 23 2009 | By: tacugama
As well as helping with the chimp health checks, Ruud and Esther are busy with their brief to enrich the enclosures where the younger chimps are playing every day, we gave you some initial pictures in a recent blog, here Esther tells us more about what’s been happening:
As we head into the 3rd week at Tacugama a platform is finally taking shape in enclosure A, where everyday almost 30 chimp youngsters play. We start work as the sun comes up at about 7am until either both batteries for the wireless drill are empty or we can’t bear the heat any longer, which ever comes first! Usually they are synchronised at around 10 am.
Pastor helps Esther to brace the trees
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Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Stichting AP, Tacugama, wildlife
Healthchecks and Vaccinations Underway
Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Apr 22 2009 | By: tacugama
The vaccinations against the EMCV virus have begun!
Led by our resident vet, Dr Rosa, the veterinary team have a thorough brief. Each of the chimps is weighed then lymph nodes, abdomen, genitalia, ears, nose, teeth, tonsils, skin and hair will be checked with heart rates, blood pressure and temperature monitored throughout. Blood and urine samples and saliva swabs will be taken and the chimps tested for TB. Most importantly for us, the vaccination against EMCV will be given. We work with with the chimps in the morning and in the afternoons Rosa, Ruud, Michel and Anne prepare and check the samples that they have taken. Anne and Michel will be carrying many of these back to the Max Planck Institute where they have the equipment to undertake detailed analysis for Tacugama. It’s a big task and our biggest priority is to minimise any stress for the chimps.
Michel, Rosa, Ruud and Willy work to complete the checks
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Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
2000 nests and another young chimp for Tacugama
Category: Census | Date: Apr 20 2009 | By: tacugama
The Sierra Leone National Chimpanzee Census Project team has just returned from an intensive 26 days of surveying Moyamba District in the south west of Sierra Leone. This district is close to Freetown, with many villages throughout that depend on slash and burn subsistance farming for survival. There is very little standing forest remaining. Dr Terry Brncic, the Scientific Project Manager gives her report:
We travelled over 1125 miles in search of wild chimpanzees… usually in first or second gear due to the road conditions!
Another makeshift bridge safely crossed…
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Tags: Census, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone
Making life more fun!
Category: Tacugama | Date: Apr 11 2009 | By: tacugama
As briefly mentioned in our last blog, we’re pleased to welcome Esther Hull and Ruud de Kort as volunteers as Tacugama. They’re here for a shorter than normal volunteer visit - just six weeks - but the chimps are certainly enjoying their input. Ruud and Esther have worked at Stichting AAP (Europe’s largest exotic animal sanctuary in Almere, NL) as part of the team looking after rescued laboratory chimpanzees. In an earlier life Esther worked as a professional stage carpenter and has combined these skills with her chimp care experience to create better environments for captive animals, Ruud is a veterinary technician. It was great timing when they emailed Tacugama to offer their services.
As regular readers of our blog will know we are trying to raise funds to build new enclosures; we continue to receive new chimpanzees and our existing chimps continue to grow and we are really at maximum capacity. The two small enclosures used by the younger chimps (most of Tacugama’s chimps have passed through these!) have been stripped of most living plants so there’s less for them to do and play with. Although ropes provided by British Royal Navy have been good alternatives for forest growth, we really felt that the young chimps needed more enrichment.
The infants enclosure looking very bare
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Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, tool use, wildlife
Worrying about Cheetah
Category: Tacugama | Date: Apr 06 2009 | By: tacugama
A week ago Cheetah, one of the adult female chimps in Philip’s group, showed up at the dens very ill at the end of the day after having missed the feeding sessions throughout the whole day. She had been fit and healthy that morning and suddenly she was so weak that she could hardly walk, her arms and legs were stiff and uncoordinated. Over the following days she has been in a critical state, vomiting anything she has eaten and having to be sedated daily to infuse liquids and give medication. We really thought she would not make it.
Cheetah receiving treatment and comfort from Bala and Dr Rosa
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Tags: Chimpanzee, EMCV, Max Planck, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, Taronga Zoo
Hanging upside down…
Category: Gaura, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Mar 25 2009 | By: tacugama
Congo - our wild chimpanzee visitor - continues to come to Tacugama with her daughters. Her older daughter - now almost five years old - is gaining confidence and becoming more independant of Congo. This is a typical view that we get of her as she watches activity at camp….
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Birds & Breakfast
Category: Chimpanzee, Education, Tacugama | Date: Mar 09 2009 | By: tacugama
This is a new initiative at Tacugama to raise awareness of the natural richness of the Western Area Protected Forest Reserve that the sanctuary helps to protect and at the same time to raise some funds to help cover our running costs.
In the last two months, Kenneth Gbengba, a Sierra Leonean ornithologist who has led many international birdwatching tours, has been training our staff, Willie Tucker and Michael Tommy. Together they have been compiling a list of birds spotted around Tacugama. So far the list has reached 85 different species of birds - including several endemics - and the list is growing with each survey walk.
Kenneth (left) training and surveying with Willie and Tommy.
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Tags: bird-watching, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
PLEASE HELP SOLO!
Category: Tacugama | Date: Mar 04 2009 | By: tacugama
If you’ve had a chance to read our newsletter then you’ve probably read about our appeal for Solo. We’re repeating that appeal here and ask you to please spread the request for help to as many of your contacts as possible, thank you.
We’re looking to raise $15,000 to help improve Solo’s living conditions here at Tacugama:
In every sanctuary there is usually at least one chimp who challenges the security of the enclosures and it’s extremely difficult to develop enough measures to stay ahead of the challenges. Here at Tacugama, Solo is our escape strategist and he has certainly put us to the test.
In June we moved him into Gorilla’s group so that we could monitor him more closely and manage his ladder and bridge building skills. Unfortunately he has continued to master his skills to the point that we cannot afford to take the risk of him escaping or passing on the skills to other group members. As he’s growing into a strong adult male we’ve had to take the very difficult decision of confining him to the dens.
One of Solo’s planned escape routes
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Bala and Willie take Solo back to the dens
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Currently Solo has no access to our forested enclosures and has limited contact with his fellow chimps. He is given the chance to interact with his group members in the dens when they come in for the night but his situation is far from ideal. Along with many of the chimpanzees at Tacugama we plan to rehabilitate Solo into the wild once we are able to identify protected forest areas where they can live as natural, wild groups in Sierra Leone but this will still take time to achieve. Until then he deserves a better environment than the one the dens alone can provide.
We desperately need help with funding to build a roofed outdoor enclosure that will provide Solo with a large, outdoor space where he can climb and socialise with other chimps but not get out! We have estimated it will cost approximately $15,000 to build it as most of the materials will have to be imported but we are working to get a better and more accurate quote.
Please help us to help Solo have a better life. Please make your donation using the one time open donation option on the right. Thank you.
Solo enjoys a special treat of a bottle of juice until the other chimps - keen to share in the attention - stone his den from a nearby enclosure…!
Tacugama Newsletter is out….
Category: Census, Tacugama | Date: Feb 18 2009 | By: tacugama
Hello
Our latest Tacugama newsletter has just been published - please click on this link to download your copy now!
We’re pleased to let you know that young Bruno is settling in well and he remains happy and gentle.
Also - thanks to Christine, Joanne, Lucia, Sherri and Theresa for their recent donations and to Gyorgy and Sherry for joining our adoption programme. Your help keeps us going every day.
Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
Another Bruno? God…I am stuck here for another 20 years!
Category: Chimpanzee, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Feb 16 2009 | By: tacugama
I was with Dr. Rosa in Freetown doing some errands and she was commenting on the fact the Jessica will be completing her last health check and in a few days she will be out of quarantine. We were happy that this is the first time since last year our quarantine section will be free of chimps. Sadly, our happiness did not last long! We got a call from one of our former education officer … a baby chimp has been handed over to them together with an official handing over note!
NAME BRUNO
SEX MALE
BROUGHT TO TE CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF SIERRA LEONE BY MUSA SANU KNOTEH
CAUGHT IN KABALA, SPENT LESS THAN THREE WEEKS IN MAKENI
FED REGULARLY ON FRUITS AND SOME RICE
REMARKS LOOKS PHYSICALLY OK, BUT DIRTY.
Tags: Bruno, Chimpanzee, Sierra Leone, Tacugama
The Tacugama Kids Programme gets ACTive!
Category: Education, TKP, Tacugama | Date: Feb 12 2009 | By: tacugama
Term 2 is in full swing and Class 5 students from the fifteen schools participating in the TKP have been performing a short play for their classmates as a reinforcement activity for the lesson on pollution.
The play deals with issues of water pollution within the rural communities in which these children live and addresses good hygiene practices.
Regent REC > Unisa: “Mama said the river was polluted, is that water pollution?”
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Tags: chimpanzees, Education, environment, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, TKP, wildlife
Belated Happy New Year!
Category: Tacugama | Date: Jan 22 2009 | By: tacugama
Hello and sorry for our prolonged blogging absence since Christmas. We’ve been extremely busy preparing for the Sierra Leone National Chimpanzee Census. We hope you forgive us for not keeping in touch so well and we’ll try to make up for it with lots more news in 2009.
So the most important news first - an update on our newest quarantine resident, Jessica. She arrived with us in December and was very wild and distrusting. As usual Mama Posseh has worked wonders and Jessica now trusts her totally. She’ll even let Posseh give her a good wash…
Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
Important News from Tacugama’s Young Ambassadors!
Category: Chimpanzee, Gaura, Tacugama | Date: Dec 22 2008 | By: tacugama
Gaura and Tombo have an important seasonal message for everyone…
They’d also like you to know that if you’re stuck for a Christmas gift then there’s no need to panic. You can now visit our new pages on Wildlife Direct and adopt one of the Tacugama chimpanzees for your family and friends. We will do our best to email electronic copies of the adoption certificate and biography by return so that you have time to print them for Christmas Day while the rest of the adoption pack follows in the post.
Many thanks to Yvonne, Lucia, Christine, Mark and Maciej for their recent generous donations - Gaura and Tombo promise that these will be shared with all of the 92 chimps we now have at Tacugama.
From all of us at the sanctuary - as we complete our first full year of blogging - thank you for your continuing interest and support and we wish you a peaceful and happy holiday season.
Tags: Chimpanzee, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife
And Jessica makes 92!
Category: Chimpanzee, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Dec 16 2008 | By: tacugama
Sadly we have to report the arrival of another very young chimpanzee at Tacugama - Jessica was brought to us late last week by the Gola Forest project to whom she was handed by her keeper in a sack. They quickly made life more comfortable for her before bringing her to the sanctuary.
Jessica on arrival at Tacugama
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As you can imagine she was very confused and distressed. We estimate that she’s about 14 months old and that she was only very recently separated from her mother - she’s very wary of humans and, from her quarantine den, calls all the time to the other chimps at the sanctuary. She’s fortunately in reasonable health and gradually learning to trust Mama Posseh as she tries to replace the love and care that her natural mother would have given to Jessica. Continue Reading »
Tags: Chimpanzee, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife







