Tacugama

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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By the end of day four, 24 of our chimpanzees have undergone the thorough health check and been vaccinated against EMCV with the help of Anne and Michel from the Max Planck Institute and Ruud and Esther, our current volunteers at Tacugama. The first day we worked through the baby group of Gaura, Bai Nyaa, Tombo, Jessica and Mac. We immobilized these small chimps by hand while the anesthesia was injected. Mama Posseh or Esther held one on their lap while Willy or Ruud gently held their large ears This is easily the best way to keep their head still as it hurts a bit when the needle goes in and they can try to bite! They then get cuddled until they fall asleep. Bainyaa had a cracked tooth, so Dr Rosa removed it to prevent any future complications, possibly she fell during some rough play. Following the procedures, which take less than half an hour the chimps are taken to an empty cage to wake up. They can be very wobbly when they are first awake, so Posseh and the staff monitor them until they are moving about easily when they are reunited with their group.

Momodu helps Rosa to weigh the chimps
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Ruud and Rosa apply a TB test
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With the baby group we started at the easy end of the scale, from here on the chimps get bigger, cleverer and wiser to the way we want to anaesthetise them. On day two we moved on to the next group of infant chimps, aged from 3 to 6 years old. They are not so easy to sedate but with a bit of grooming and encouragement Rosa managed to inject most of them through the bars of the night dens. A skin sample was taken from one boy named Spanna (as he was rescued from a garage) so that Rosa can try to work out what is causing his current bad skin condition.

Posseh helps Rosa to hand inject the sedative
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Yesterday and today the team really had to get into their deception and subterfuge tactics to anesthetize the young chimps that were next on the list. They are extremely intelligent animals and are naturally suspicious of any unusual behaviour, especially as they get a bit older. These five year olds were of course trying to avoid the blow pipe we use to deliver the anaesthetic. For each chimp we distracted them with some fruit on held from one side of the cage (they’re not allowed to eat before the procedure so the sign of any food is a big attraction) while Rosa sneaked up on the other side with the blow pipe hidden up the back of her T shirt and it worked well!

Willy sits with Peewee as she wakes
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With the infants done we’ll be moving on to Joko’s juvenile group next.

As we monitor Cheetah’s slow recovery it really emphasises the importance of this vaccination exercise. With the aid of poles that we’ve mounted in her den she’s able to move herself around and to reach her food but it’s very difficult to know how well she will recover. Her strong and stubborn personality is ever present, but her limbs, especially her legs, are still very weak and limited in movement.

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