Tacugama

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.

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