Tacugama

Category: Tacugama | Date: Oct 30 2009 | By: tacugama

If you’re going to be in Barcelona, Spain on the 11th or 13th of November or London, UK on the 21st November then we’d love to meet up with you!!

Bala Amarasekaran, Tacugama’s founder and Programme Director will be speaking at two fundraising evenings being organised on our behalf and if you could come along and give us your support it would be great to see you there.

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Tags: Barcelona, Chimpanzee, DFID, fundraising, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Oct 28 2009 | By: tacugama

This weekend saw the arrival at Tacugama of yet another young chimp prematurely separated from its mother. He’s from the Kangari Hills in the centre of Sierra Leone so we have called him …. Kangari.

Moses receives Kangari at Tacugama
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He arrived at the sanctuary as the result of sensitisation work undertaken by our chimpanzee census team who were recently in the area towards the centre of Sierra Leone. A couple of weeks after they had been working there, Dr Terry received a call from the head of Cluff Gold, an exploration company based close to the Kangari Hills. He had been approached by someone with a baby chimp hoping to sell it to him as a pet. Thanks to the briefing he’d received from the census team he informed the person that what they were doing was illegal, immediately called Tacugama and arranged to bring Kangari to the sanctuary - a six hour drive from the hills. The person with the chimp claimed that Kangari had been left behind by his mother as she was chased away from raiding crops in a local farm. Sadly this is a highly unlikely story - Kangari is probably only 18 months old and it would be very unusual for him to be left behind no matter the stress - and it is much more likely that his mother was trapped and killed.

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Tags: , Baomahun, Chimpanzee, Cluff Gold, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Oct 26 2009 | By: tacugama

A Summer in Tacugama is the translation of the title “Estiu a Tacugama”, the first novel written about Tacugama. It’s been written in Catalan (the language of the north-eastern region of Spain) by Pilar Garriga, the sister of our resident vet Dr Rosa. The book is written for teenagers and, although fiction, is based heavily on real life experiences at Tacugama and in Sierra Leone.

This is Pilar Garriga’s third novel for teenagers following the work of Dr Rosa! The first two were based on Dr Rosa’s earlier veterinary work with orangutans in Indonesia - they’ve become very popular in Spain and are used to support the Catalan school curriculum. We are very proud of having Tacugama as the main subject in a book and we hope that it can soon be translated into English for others to read and enjoy.

Tags: Chimpanzee, Estiu a Tacugama, novel, Pilar Garriga, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Tacugama | Date: Oct 10 2009 | By: tacugama

Hello, this is Tess, one of Tacugama’s volunteers, blogging today.

As some of you know Mama Posseh is the responsible for the quarantine section at Tacugama where she looks after the new arrivals for their 3 months quarantine period. She gives them lots of care and attention during their stay here, acting as their foster mother. The new chimps are often weak, distressed and their backgrounds unknown. Posseh works very hard, an important part of her job is keeping the area clean to prevent any spread of diseases, preparing their food as well as helping the chimps recover from their trauma. She also helps Dr Rosa to administer any medications needed.

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

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Category: Tacugama | Date: Oct 03 2009 | By: tacugama

Thanks to Lush in Canada we should be able to share lots more photos with you of the wildlife in and around Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary!

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We received a donation through their Charity Pot scheme which has allowed us to buy some digital camera traps and will also help us to replace our aging supply vehicle. The camera traps will play an important role in helping us to record and confirm wild chimpanzee movements and which other species share their environment. We’re first using the camera traps around Tacugama and in the future we’ll move them further afield to expand our knowledge.

With the help of Joko, our patrol officer, we set up some initial trials with the cameras and we’ve been pleased with the results. Some of the first shots we captured were of Congo – the wild chimp who occasionally visits the sanctuary – together with her two daughters. It’s been very difficult to get images of Congo in the past and it’s great that the traps have done the job for us! Joko’s also very pleased that the cameras should help him with his important patrolling work that protects the forest reserve areas surrounding Tacugama from hunters.

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Tags: camera traps, Chimpanzee, conservation, Lush Cosmetics, photos, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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