Tacugama

Category: Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Oct 30 2008 | By: tacugama

Sorry for the recent lack of a post, intermittent internet connections and spreading flu have conspired against us staying in touch with you over the past week and more.

On our last post we mentioned a new arrival at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Her name is Bai Nyaa, which means woman of the kigdom Bai. She is a one year old girl with a healthy appetite. She was rescued in a village called Poturu, near Tiwai Island, in the south of Sierra Leone, again by representatives of the Gola Forest Project. Villagers were once more reluctant to give much history, but she is tame and used to people. So far her first health check has shown only a mild anaemia, let’s hope nothing more emerges during her 3 month quarantine.

Even though we are struggling for funding and space, we never turn down a new chimp, because we know there is nowhere else in this country where they can go. It costs us about $1000 per year for every chimp and currently we care for 91 chimps. We thank all of you for your continuing support!

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Marion is fully introduced into Mama Lucy’s group. She is the baby toy of the group and everyone wants her to ride on their backs. It is a wonderful sight to see how well she has been accepted by her new family and finally see her enjoying the extended freedom of their forested enclosure.

Marion and Kate
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The lengthy introduction process for Boyze is making steady progress. He has also been introduced to most of Philip’s group and is now allowed to be in the forested enclosure. The final hurdle will be meeting the two larger males, Ole and Perform. We’re keeping them apart until Boyze is comfortable and made enough allies in the group.

The flu epidemic is keeping Dr. Rosa extremely busy. Josephine responded well to the treatment and she is back in her group. Unluckily, the flu has spread to the other groups and the cacophony of the different coughs makes camp sound like a concert of modern music - not our favourite background.

Gorilla is the next to be badly affected and he has been feeling miserable, congested and weak. Some chimpanzees can be very stubborn when it comes to take medicines, and he is one of them. Finally we have had to medicate him using the blowpipe. Is it interesting to note that Gorilla, different to the other chimps, is not afraid of the dart itself. (Of course, he doesn’t like us to point and dart him but after, he likes to play with the dart and needle. Any other chimp will either destroy it, or be scared of touching it.) This makes recovery of the dart a lengthy process, as he likes keeping it with him. He was originally kept long time ago by an Austrian doctor, so maybe he became used to medical equipment. But who knows!

We have heard about the dreadful events happening  in  East Congo and we want to send our moral support to everyone affected.

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Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Oct 15 2008 | By: tacugama

Chimpanzees are tough but when it comes to respiratory infections, they suffer badly. At Tacugama we dread when flu strikes. Unfortunately, the flu season is here and all 27 chimps in Mamma Lucy’s group are coughing, sneezing and some have fever.

Marion and Josephine have been the worst affected. Marion spent one day refusing food or drinks, but eventually the medication worked and she is now recovering well, but Josephine has refused anything for three days.

Today we had no other option but to dart Josephine and give her a drip to provide her with fluid and nutrition. We were very concerned about her breathing as she was very congested, that’s why we had to supplement her with oxygen during the procedure (It is the first time we have had oxygen at Tacugama thanks to a recent donation by WSPA).

She recovered well from the anaesthesia and now we just need to wait and see how she will progress.

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News just in…….we have this evening received a new baby chimpanzee……more news on her soon.

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Category: Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Oct 14 2008 | By: tacugama

Urgent has now also finished her quarantine period and we have the difficult challenge of integrating her into an existing family group.  Introducing adult chimpanzees is very difficult and often unsuccessful. In the case of Urgent and her history, it may well be impossible.  Our goal is to integrate her to Gorilla and Baba’s group. Gorilla will then have someone closer to his own age to share the attention of the lively younger chimps who, in turn, may accept her better than other adults.

While under anesthesia, Urgent was transferred to her new den.  She’s sharing a set of dens with Gorilla and Solo.  She is in the middle with Solo on one side and Gorilla and Jettie’s on the other. (Jettie’s one of the youngest members of the group who has become almost inseparable from Gorilla and chooses to stay with him at night rather than with the rest of the young ones.)  She will stay in the den until we are confident that she is comfortable with the rest of the group.  She can interact through the grills with her den mates and during the day the rest of Baba’s group can interact with her through the tunnel entrance to the enclosure.

Urgent meets Gorilla & Jettie with Solo looking on
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Things were going well. Urgent was submissive and there was a lot of grooming through the grills but we then hit a huge problem.  She didn’t want to move from one den to the next for the daily cleaning that is necessary.  We tried all means…all kind of foods, nice words and we even allowed Baba, Tico and Zack to mix with her in the hope she would follow them to next den, but nothing. For almost three days she refused to move dens… she is a woman with an attitute!

Urgent happy with Tico’s company but not moving
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As she seems very keen on Solo, we finally allowed her to mix with him (he’s a much bigger chimp), it did the trick and she followed him to his den, at last we could clean her den again. They got on so well that finally we let them spend the night together and that’s how it’s continuing, now it’s much easier to clean and they’re good company for each other.  Solo is also confined to the dens at the moment as his escape attempts became much more serious - we’re working on a longer term solution to keep him and us safe and happy!

Marion’s continuing to meet more and more of Mama Lucy’s group and has also been introduced to the electric fence. Before any chimp can go into the forest enclosures, they have to learn about the fence and avoiding shocks.  We set some wires next to her den to teach her that this is something you should not touch. Unfortunately the only way to learn is for a chimp to touch the wire. Normally once will do, sometimes twice but never a third time. Marion learned her lesson very quickly!  Unfortunately her progress to the enclosure has been delayed - flu has struck the group and several of the chimps are now coughing and sneezing - Marion included.  We’re working hard to try to stop it spreading but we’re in for a few tough days.

Marion gets a shock

Thanks to Joanne, Leigh and Lucia for your recent and continuing support - it really does make a big difference to all of us here….and Catherine thanks for following our blogs and staying in touch. Say hi to Ron.

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Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Gaura, Tacugama | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: tacugama

Last week saw the end of Tombo’s quarantine period and so finally we’ve been able to give Gaura a playmate. After a long wait, he was very excited to meet Tombo. With only a small hesitation on Tombo’s part, it took no time for them to bond together, so much so that Tombo wouldn’t let Gaura go at all. It was an amazing introduction that we’ve captured on a few video clips so that you can share the moment…..!

“Gaura, you are mine now”

“Love at first sight”

“I am not letting you go ever”

After spending many happy hours playing together, Gaura and Tombo finally headed to bed for a well earned night’s sleep. Much to Tombo’s disappointment, Gaura was not so good at sharing his hammock as he was at playing! She finally had to let go of him to get enough space and sleep in her own hammock. The two are now sharing the same quarantine enclosure and really enjoying each other’s company.  We’re hoping that we can secure funding soon to allow us to build the additional enclosures we need so that Gaura, Tombo together with Mac, Salva and others will finally start to learn how to live in the forest.

Bed time
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Yesterday saw the opening of the art exhibition at Monarto Zoo in Australia - you may recall that two Australian artists have used photos of Tacugama’s chimpanzees for the basis of their works being displayed. They have kindly offered to give a significant proportion of their proceeds to Tacugama to help with the sanctuary running costs. It sounds like the exhibition is going really well for Leigh Rust and Patrick Hedges - here’s a link to their website Art for Chimps.

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Tags: , Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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