Tacugama

It is wet, wet, and wet here! August has the highest rainfall on record in Sierra Leone (almost 100cm in one month only) and it is no different this year.

Kouze in the rain
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Everyone is soaked to the skin. Staff keep taking turns to sit around the kitchen fire in between their busy schedule. The hairy ones are having it tough too. Although the bigger boys and girls are used to this, some of the smaller chimps are down with the usual coughs and colds that this time of the year brings, but they are coping. (Our thoughts and best wishes are with the Limbe team as they work hard to treat the pneumonia hitting their primates.)

It is difficult to see the chimps in the bigger enclosures except during feeding times as everyone takes cover in the bush from the downpours. Yesterday we had a hole in the clouds and some sunlight emerged through it for a few minutes. I was happy enough to take the camera out and the chimps in Philip’s group were happy to come and see some sunlight too! They went into a grooming frenzy. Every single one was grooming and getting groomed. Even Babes was in the middle of it and allowed big boy, Jido, to groom her month old baby.

Julie at the centre of a grooming circle
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Tito being groomed by Philip… amongst others!
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Then I got very lucky and was able to take a good picture of “Hand Clasp Grooming – HCG” by two of the adults! Chimps from different parts of Africa tend to have cultural differences and there are unique displays in grooming, nut cracking, termite fishing etc. There is ongoing research on “HCG” and this picture confirms that some of the Tacugama chimps are very much involved in this behaviour pattern.

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Although we’ve seen the behaviour before we’ve never managed to catch it on picture until now. You can also read more about this on a recent post from Guinea’s Chimpanzee Conservation Project.

We were lucky again as we managed to catch a much better glimpse of Babes’ baby and we can confirm that she gave birth to a girl! With all the rain Babes keeps the baby well concealed most of the time.

Suleh admires Babes’ baby
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Babes keeps her baby close to her chest
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Now we know the baby is a girl it’s time to start thinking of a name for her (that has to begin with a B – her big sister is called Bintu). Perhaps we could think of some sort of bidding amongst our friends on the blog – what do you think? Let us know.

All of our recent new arrivals are doing well and we’ll have some more news and photos of them for you soon.

Thanks to you all for your recent donations, we know that we are in the middle of some difficult economic times and really appreciate the support that you give. Many thanks to Hj H., Yvonne M. and Daniele M. for adopting one of our chimps and to Christine C., Nyree H., Lucia C., Michael H., Theresa S. and Yang H. for your recent generous support.