Tacugama

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When Augusta died two months ago, we were very concerned about her companion and best friend, Gorilla (one must be sick to name a chimp- Gorilla!) They have lived together for the past 11 years and Gorilla was the only chimp Augusta would trust and share her life with.

I first met Gorri in 1993 in a deplorable condition sharing his cage with a smaller chimp-Cheeta, both owned by a dubious Austrian Doctor who was dealing in exotic birds and other wildlife. He was rarely in the country and the chimps were left in the care of his care taker who could only afford to feed them sporadically. I was told on many occasions they would go without food and water for days. They learnt to eat their own excrement! The Doctor also owned another chimp called Fatu, who lived in an old toilet next to Gorilla and Cheeta. Fatu’s “toilet” was over 1.5 meters deep in rotting food and her own excrement.

It was the same story with Gorri and Cheeta. Their cage was so tiny and they could not stand on fours and constantly hunched their backs to sit down or lie down. On many occasions I would sneak in and feed the three as the care taker had strict instruction not to allow anyone in the compound.

By the time Tacugama was established and we could officially confiscate chimps, Fatu and Cheeta were no more. Lack of food, care and loneliness finally took their life. Gorilla was still holding on to his dear life. I rescued him December 1995.

Gorilla grew into a handsome, affectionate and caring chimp. He is now in his early twenties and probably the friendliest adult chimp at Tacugama. When our lady from the wild – Miss Congo – started visiting Tacugama back in 1997, she hand picked Gorilla to be her mate. They mated through the grills and baby Gola was born in 1998. Sadly, Miss Congo lost her baby after a year. We still remember Congo bringing the lifeless body of the baby and handing it over to Gorilla and those haunting barks from all the chimps on that day still rings in my ear! Gorri and Congo kept shaking and prodding the body the whole day with the hope of waking up the baby. Miss Congo now has another baby and visits us regularly and always goes to Gorilla to pay her first respects. He spends hours grooming the mother and baby. Gorri adores kids and he is so good with them.

For what he is and for what he gas gone through, we have decided to give him an easy life with a brand new family (Baba’s group) of twelve toddlers. Of course we have the option of integrating him with the adult group but it would be hard for him to cope with many adult males still trying to workout their hierarchy after Bruno, the alpha male, unceremoniously abandoned us after the great escape in April 2006.

As I write this, Gorri is being mobbed by 12 naughty toddlers.. I saw Tiko the youngest of the lot trying to play with Gorri’s testicles and Zack trying to eat Gorri’s ear!

He is laughing his head off as they chase, tickle, kiss, groom and jump all over him. Brings me beautiful memories of me and my siblings playing the fool with my Grandpa.
If I remember well….he looked very happy!

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Donations
Thank you Theresa for that little ray of sunshine, as the pictures of Gorri and the youngsters show it is starting to rain here.  We really do appreciate the donations; so thank you also Lucia, Cynthia and all of the anonymous donors for your generous contributions.