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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Today we’d like you to meet Mama Lucy’s Group – 27 boisterous young chimps between 5 and 12 years of age. In chimp years these are adolescents. The queen of the group is Mama Lucy. She is playful, easy going and takes good care of all the little ones, particularly Chota who needs special attention. Joke is the biggest male of the group, at the moment smaller than Lucy but he will surely takeover dominance as he becomes a fully adult male.
Mama Lucy
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The three troublesome ones are Marc, Nyanda and Melanie, who sleep separately in one den to avoid conflicts with the others at bedtime. (We bring all the younger chimpanzees in every evening but in the older groups many of the chimps nest and sleep outside.) Mama Lucy sleeps with the smaller guys where she keeps any bullying in check, but only after she has taken as many bananas as she needs for herself! Like in a school playground, the bigger kids will sometimes pick on the smaller ones, in this case biting them and stealing their food. The main culprit for this used to be Rebecca, but if Lucy’s around she doesn’t dare to misbehave. Lucy usually lets the little ones get their milk first in the morning. Maybe because she is too lazy to wake up… in the mornings she is usually to be found curled up, stretching and yawning, while the others are already up and playing around her.
Marc (on the left) and Nyanda
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After the morning, milk we let them out through the tunnel into their forest enclosure. This is always a time for fun, greeting each other with kisses and hugs and running around in the tunnel and dens making the staff chase after them before they get their morning meal. After that it’s off into the forest.
Waiting for lunch!
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This is a very playful group and there is always something happening. We keep you in touch with their antics in future posts!
Little Gaura is still not fully well so it was time for a chest x-ray to rule out any chest infection, especially tuberculosis. Bala, Rosa and Posseh accompanied Gaura to the hospital and of course the hospital staff were more than happy to assist us. We are now waiting for the report to decide what the next steps are but he’s still cheerful.
Gaura waiting with Posseh for his x-ray
I love the pics and deescription of a typical day – they look so wonderfully healthy!
Delightful post! Mama Lucy is a natural born leader. These guys are so darn cute and you can see the glint of mischief in their eyes! We hope little Gaura’s chest xray is negative and he is feeling better very soon, thanks for keeping us posted on his condition. Wonderful work, great stuff!
I am very happy to see this pictures. This beautiful chimps has a new life with your cares and devotion. Thanks all of you that work in Tacugama this magnificent creatures have a second chance. Gaura is beautiful and soon will better, I hope.
Great post! I hope Gaura is OK and is fully recovered soon. He’d have so much fun playing with others his age, I’m sure.
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I just sent $200 to Tacugama chimps and particularly to cares with Gaura, my beautiful adoptive son.
Oh, Lucia, bless you. We are worried about his lingering condition. You know, germs are out smarting antibiotics, making it more difficult to treat a host of infections. It may take a new course of antbiotics to make little Gaura better, so that money you sent will be a God send for sure!
God bless all us, including our beloved chimps. Thank you Theresa.