Tacugama

Protecting chimpanzees in Sierra Leone

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An Urgent Problem…

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
urgent-4.JPG.
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