Tacugama

Category: Tacugama | Date: Sep 23 2008 | By: tacugama

Marion is a good natured 3.5 years old female chimpanzee. She arrived at Tacugama last November after being confiscated by an IMATT soldier in a small town named Moyamba, towards the south west of Sierra Leone. She had been kept by people for two years and was mostly free to roam in the town. Maybe that’s why she is so confident and strong-minded.

Marion has had to stay in the quarantine area beyond her allotted three months because of the lack of funding to build the new enclosures that we need. Finally, we decided to try to introduce her to Mama Lucy’s group of 26. It is never easy to introduce a new chimp in an already settled group but Marion is young, female with hints of a strong and determined character so it was worth the try so that she could start to enjoy more space, companionship and the next stages of her rehabilitation.

The introduction process has to be carefully managed so the first step was to prepare a space for Marion in the night dens where Mama Lucy’s group come in to sleep. Marion will need to spend several weeks in here gradually being introduced to her new family so it’s important that she has hammocks and ropes to play with. Early last week Mama Posseh took her from quarantine to her new home while Mama Lucy and her group were out in their forested enclosure, they shared what will probably be their last hug together - a very sad moment for Mama Posseh. Gradually Marion moved away and started to explore the much bigger space that she now has.

On the way to Marion’s new home
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One last hug
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Marion’s first reaction when she saw her new family group coming in to the neighbouring dens for the night was defiant, standing upright with her hair on end and displaying to them… not at all meek even though she’s the smallest! At first she only had only contact with the other chimps through the grill that separates the dens. Next morning we could see Bobbie, Aqua and other youngsters grooming her through the grill. This was going well!

Two days later they were getting on so well we allowed on of them, Bobbie, to join Marion in her den. It took no time for both of them to start playing, chasing and tickling each other…. it was so great to see Marion enjoying being with another chimp! We captured a few moments on video so that you can see the fun for yourselves. The sound you can hear on the video clip is real chimpanzee laughter - Marion just can’t stop laughing!

This week we have introduced two more youngsters, Kate and Finda, and you would never believe how well Marion has clicked with everyone even though she’s the smallest. Actually Finda seems a little bit jealous and teases her… but Marion doesn’t hesitate to hold her own.

Marion (second from left) with her growing family
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Hopefully with such a good start in meeting the youngsters, Marion will be accepted by the older members of her family too so that it won’t take too long before she can finally belong to a chimpanzee family group as they explore and enjoy their forested enclosure.

Thanks from all of us to Theresa, Yang and Christine for their recent donations

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Tags: , Chimpanzee, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife