Tacugama

Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Jan 16 2008 | By: admin

In the name of all of chimps of Tacugama, a big thanks to Wanda and Perri for their donations in December. Every penny counts here and we will put these generous contributions to good use.

Little Gaura has been feeling sick again. He recovered from his cold but is now developing low grade fever in the evenings, recurring every day so Dr. Rosa is running some tests. Poor Gaura! Thankfully, he hasn’t lost his appetite at all… he literally wolfs down everything and we have to stop him to prevent him getting an upset stomach. You will hear more of him as he settles down.

The other evening we heard the chimps of Mama Lucy’s group screaming and barking continuously. We brought the group of 27 indoors and two chimps were missing, Mama Lucy and Chota. Mama Lucy is the alpha female of the group and by nature very protective of the smaller chimps, especially Chota, a six year old youngster who has been suffering from a neurological condition for the past year. In early 2007, he caught the flu twice a few months apart and both times he developed seizures and vomiting. The second time was so bad that we thought he would never recover. Dr. Rosa has been studying his case closely and has been consulting with other doctors; Chota is suspected to be suffering from Reye’s syndrome. This condition is caused by an adverse reaction to aspirin and happens very rarely. It causes poor coordination, weakness and slow movement of the limbs. Despite his handicap, his mental faculty is in good order and mostly he copes so well that it is hard to say he has a problem. He gets protection from Mamma Lucy and the other chimps seem to recognize his problem and do not bother him.

We finally located Mama Lucy barking from a tree and underneath we saw one of the climbing ropes dangling and moving. We knew Chota had somehow managed to entangle his finger on the rope once more! A month earlier, he went through the same ordeal but was clever enough get himself free. This time Chota needed help and Willie and I decided to go in to the enclosure. Amazingly Mama Lucy trusted our good intentions to help him out, left him under our care and went back to the dens, allowing us to have free access to the enclosure. Chota was so happy when we finally cut the rope.

Bala, Chota and Willie assess the problem
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Cutting the rope
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We spent all of the following day checking and removing any ropes found with defects. Fortunately we’ve recently enjoyed a visit from the crew of HMS Stanton who donated heavy ropes that we’ve been able to use to replace the old ones. Hopefully Chota and the other chimps can now continue to enjoy the ropes without any further mishap.

Crew from HMS Stanton at Tacugama