Tacugama

Category: Chimpanzee, Gaura, Tacugama | Date: Nov 19 2008 | By: tacugama

Unfortunately in the last couple of weeks we’ve had some reports of hunters entering the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve carrying guns. While we’re not concerned about Tacugama chimps or visitor and staff safety (we work so closely with our local communities that there are lots of eyes and ears taking care of our immediate sanctuary area) its both illegal and unacceptable for the hunters to be in the forest reserve. Over the last few months we’ve enjoyed hearing wild chimps calling to our own with increasing frequency and only on Saturday five wild chimps were seen playing close to our local dam. It’s these guys and other forest inhabitants that we’re concerned about so our small patrol team are watching carefully and we’re in close contact with the enforcement authorities. We’re hopeful that the hunters will be apprehended and prosecuted before long.

Empty cartridges found by the patrol team
.

We’re finally through the flu and although a couple of our chimps had us really concerned - especially Josephine and Salva - we’re pleased to report that everyone’s made a full recovery. It also means that we were able to release Dr Rosa, our resident vet, to meet her counterparts from the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) at a veterinary workshop in Congo. PASA supports the vets getting together every two years so that they can share experiences and update their knowledge to make sure we keep our wildlife safe and healthy. You can see Rosa at the conference on the J.A.C.K. blog…

Gaura, Tombo and Mac are going from strength to strength! They really look forward to their daily forest walk and hoot in excitement when Posseh rounds them up for their excursions. Poor little Bainyaa is feeling really left out as they go. She’s still in her quarantine period so has to wait for a few more weeks before she can join the rest of Posseh’s adventurers.

Tombo (l) and Mac (r) ready to go (you can just see Gaura’s hand on Posseh’s shoulder!)
.

Posseh was telling me that Gaura is now getting very daring in the forest, jumping from branch to branch and going higher and higher in the trees. Tombo’s happy to climb high but won’t jump far and Mac is still finding his feet (and arms!) as he gains confidence in the trees. Hopefully we’ll be able to get our new enclosures funded so that our younger residents can spend all day in the trees just like the older guys.

Gaura ready to play with Mac
.

The news from Phillip’s group is good so far with Boyze, Ole, Tito and Perform all behaving. Boyze is building his confidence though he still likes to see a clear route to the dens should moods change. Hopefully in the next few days he’ll start to explore further afield. Urgent and Salva are close to being able to go into the enclosures soon and Marion’s not looked back since she joined Mama Lucy’s group out in their forest area. We smile everytime we see her riding on Mama Lucy or Kate’s back - such a contrast to when she first arrived.

Blogging has really helped us to keep in touch with many of our friends - known and unknown but it’s also fun when we hear from you in different ways. A recent visitor to Sierra Leone brought with her an envelope from Bishop Tufnell Junior School in the south of England. Inside was a lovely card from the school’s art club who had raised money for us by making and selling bookmarks. We wasted no time is showing the card to Simon’s group of young chimps - they thought it was great too! Thanks again to all of you in the art club - your donation was a lovely surprise.

.
.
.

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