Tacugama

Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Feb 26 2008 | By: admin

First of all thanks very much to Wanda and Theresa for their great donations that we’ve received this month towards medication costs and running the sanctuary.

We thought that you might like to know a few facts surrounding the environment in Sierra Leone:

* Forest coverage in Sierra Leone has decreased from 75% to 5% primary closed canopy forest in the last 100 years; a further 3.5% remains as secondary (regrowth) forest

* Less than 4% of Sierra Leone’s significant biodiversity is protected in any way with extremely limited re-enforcement capability in place

* Tacugama is situated in the Western Area Forest on the Freetown peninsula - tree coverage in the Western Area Forest Reserve (WAFR) has reduced by 25% in the last 5 years. Continue Reading »

13 responses so far

Category: Education, Tacugama | Date: Feb 17 2008 | By: admin

First of all we’d like to say a big thank you to Lucia for her very generous donation towards little Gaura’s care. He’s coping with his teething and behaving well.

Here’s an update on the Tacugama Kids Programme and the Hastings School Nature Club – we told you about Mr Wright and his fantastic launch of the club a little while ago. The education team (now including Mr Wright!) has been continuing to visit the local schools and we’re pleased with the enthusiasm from all the teachers. At most of the schools the children seem to understand and enjoy the first few lessons of the environmental education curriculum we prepared for them: environment, ecosystems and habitats.
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10 responses so far

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

Santos the artist has completed his beautiful work improving the visitor areas within the sanctuary with his artwork! We are proud of his creations and would like to share some of them with you. The school kids seem to love them and Mosses and Willie are inspired to tell more stories to the kids and visitors standing in front of the murals.

Mosses talking about Pinkie to the school children
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7 responses so far

Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Feb 12 2008 | By: admin

Miss Congo, a wild chimpanzee, and her baby have been camping around Tacugama the whole of this week causing loads of noise and triggering some manly responses from the adult males. She’s made sure that they all know that she’s ready to mate (demonstrated in female chimps by the large, pink swelling of their genital area)!

Miss Congo’s story is very touching. During the height of the civil war in Sierra Leone we went through very hard and dangerous times. Just a thought from that past makes me so sad and angry. The people we lost, the chimps we lost, the many we had to bury in shallow graves on the side of the road leading to Tacugama. The sound of gunfire and the bombing still haunts of all us. If we go by the latest research work by scientists in Kyoto University that compares the memory of chimpanzees with humans, there is no doubt that our chimps do have haunting memories as well of the whole episode. What has been happening now in Kenya saddens me – we understand what it means from our experiences here! During those hard days, Miss Congo was like enrichment for both Tacugama staff and chimps. She happened across Tacugama during the height of the war and somehow decided that here was the best place to camp; watching a bunch of brave guys defying all odds looking after a bunch of chimps!
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13 responses so far

Category: Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Feb 05 2008 | By: admin

At Tacugama we spend time and resources to build relationships with the communities around the Western Area Forest Reserve (WAFR) to educate people about signs to look for, what to expect and how to deal with the situation should they ever come into contact with chimpanzees in the wild. These relationships proved invaluable to us at the time of the escape of some of our chimpanzees back in April 2006 (for more information then you can download the newsletter issued shortly after the escape http://www.tacugama.com/tacugamanewsletterjune06.pdf). Information provided by the local communities helped us to rescue the chimps much more easily than we could have done without people’s support.
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18 responses so far

Category: Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Feb 02 2008 | By: admin

At Tacugama we try to create as natural an environment as possible for the chimpanzees. An important part of this is establishing groups that recreate the natural family hierarchies that exist in the wild - a tough job when our chimps come from all over Sierra Leone.

Mama Lucy’s group out in the enclosure
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7 responses so far