Tacugama

Category: Tacugama | Date: Apr 29 2009 | By: tacugama

This has been a sad, long weekend for all of us at Tacugama and it’s looking very much that EMCV is the cause. Just as we are working hard to get all the chimps vaccinated against EMCV, the virus has struck again causing the death of two of our chimpanzees and leaving a third one ill. We already have Cheetah battling to recover from the infection that struck her almost a month ago. As you can imagine it is so upsetting and frustrating as we currently have a team working hard at camp to vaccinate all of the chimps against this virus but we had not yet reached those who succumbed in the last few days.

It was last Wednesday that the care staff raised the alarm for Marcel and Kate, both in Joke and Mama Lucy’s group. They came into the night dens looking very weak and disoriented, much the same as Cheetah earlier in the month. We spent an anxious night monitoring them - there are no real remedies available - and were pleased with how they appeared a little stronger the next morning. Mid afternoon on Thursday disaster struck as they both started vomiting and deteriorated rapidly. The team working on the vaccinations were available to take the best possible care but despite this poor Kate quickly passed away with nothing that we could do to save her. Marcel fortunately stabilised and so far does not seem to have been as badly affected as Cheetah.

Marcel is fortunately recovering 
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Tags: Chimpanzee, EMCV, Max Planck, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, Taronga Zoo, wildlife

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Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Apr 23 2009 | By: tacugama

As well as helping with the chimp health checks, Ruud and Esther are busy with their brief to enrich the enclosures where the younger chimps are playing every day, we gave you some initial pictures in a recent blog, here Esther tells us more about what’s been happening:

As we head into the 3rd week at Tacugama a platform is finally taking shape in enclosure A, where everyday almost 30 chimp youngsters play. We start work as the sun comes up at about 7am until either both batteries for the wireless drill are empty or we can’t bear the heat any longer, which ever comes first! Usually they are synchronised at around 10 am.

Pastor helps Esther to brace the trees
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Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Stichting AP, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Apr 22 2009 | By: tacugama

The vaccinations against the EMCV virus have begun!

Led by our resident vet, Dr Rosa, the veterinary team have a thorough brief. Each of the chimps is weighed then lymph nodes, abdomen, genitalia, ears, nose, teeth, tonsils, skin and hair will be checked with heart rates, blood pressure and temperature monitored throughout. Blood and urine samples and saliva swabs will be taken and the chimps tested for TB. Most importantly for us, the vaccination against EMCV will be given. We work with with the chimps in the morning and in the afternoons Rosa, Ruud, Michel and Anne prepare and check the samples that they have taken. Anne and Michel will be carrying many of these back to the Max Planck Institute where they have the equipment to undertake detailed analysis for Tacugama. It’s a big task and our biggest priority is to minimise any stress for the chimps.

Michel, Rosa, Ruud and Willy work to complete the checks
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Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Census | Date: Apr 20 2009 | By: tacugama

The Sierra Leone National Chimpanzee Census Project team has just returned from an intensive 26 days of surveying Moyamba District in the south west of Sierra Leone. This district is close to Freetown, with many villages throughout that depend on slash and burn subsistance farming for survival. There is very little standing forest remaining. Dr Terry Brncic, the Scientific Project Manager gives her report:

We travelled over 1125 miles in search of wild chimpanzees… usually in first or second gear due to the road conditions!

Another makeshift bridge safely crossed…
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Tags: Census, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone

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Category: Tacugama | Date: Apr 11 2009 | By: tacugama

As briefly mentioned in our last blog, we’re pleased to welcome Esther Hull and Ruud de Kort as volunteers as Tacugama. They’re here for a shorter than normal volunteer visit - just six weeks - but the chimps are certainly enjoying their input. Ruud and Esther have worked at Stichting AAP (Europe’s largest exotic animal sanctuary in Almere, NL) as part of the team looking after rescued laboratory chimpanzees.  In an earlier life Esther worked as a professional stage carpenter and has combined these skills with her chimp care experience to create better environments for captive animals,  Ruud is a veterinary technician.  It was great timing when they emailed Tacugama to offer their services.

As regular readers of our blog will know we are trying to raise funds to build new enclosures; we continue to receive new chimpanzees and our existing chimps continue to grow and we are really at maximum capacity.  The two small enclosures used by the younger chimps (most of Tacugama’s chimps have passed through these!) have been stripped of most living plants so there’s less for them to do and play with.  Although ropes provided by British Royal Navy have been good alternatives for forest growth, we really felt that the young chimps needed more enrichment.

The infants enclosure looking very bare
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Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, tool use, wildlife

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Category: Tacugama | Date: Apr 06 2009 | By: tacugama

A week ago Cheetah, one of the adult female chimps in Philip’s group, showed up at the dens very ill at the end of the day after having missed the feeding sessions throughout the whole day. She had been fit and healthy that morning and suddenly she was so weak that she could hardly walk, her arms and legs were stiff and uncoordinated. Over the following days she has been in a critical state, vomiting anything she has eaten and having to be sedated daily to infuse liquids and give medication. We really thought she would not make it.

Cheetah receiving treatment and comfort from Bala and Dr Rosa
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Tags: Chimpanzee, EMCV, Max Planck, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, Taronga Zoo

7 responses so far