Lady from the wild
Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Feb 12 2008 | By: admin
Miss Congo, a wild chimpanzee, and her baby have been camping around Tacugama the whole of this week causing loads of noise and triggering some manly responses from the adult males. She’s made sure that they all know that she’s ready to mate (demonstrated in female chimps by the large, pink swelling of their genital area)!
Miss Congo’s story is very touching. During the height of the civil war in Sierra Leone we went through very hard and dangerous times. Just a thought from that past makes me so sad and angry. The people we lost, the chimps we lost, the many we had to bury in shallow graves on the side of the road leading to Tacugama. The sound of gunfire and the bombing still haunts of all us. If we go by the latest research work by scientists in Kyoto University that compares the memory of chimpanzees with humans, there is no doubt that our chimps do have haunting memories as well of the whole episode. What has been happening now in Kenya saddens me – we understand what it means from our experiences here! During those hard days, Miss Congo was like enrichment for both Tacugama staff and chimps. She happened across Tacugama during the height of the war and somehow decided that here was the best place to camp; watching a bunch of brave guys defying all odds looking after a bunch of chimps!
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Sightings in the wild…
Category: Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Feb 05 2008 | By: admin
At Tacugama we spend time and resources to build relationships with the communities around the Western Area Forest Reserve (WAFR) to educate people about signs to look for, what to expect and how to deal with the situation should they ever come into contact with chimpanzees in the wild. These relationships proved invaluable to us at the time of the escape of some of our chimpanzees back in April 2006 (for more information then you can download the newsletter issued shortly after the escape http://www.tacugama.com/tacugamanewsletterjune06.pdf). Information provided by the local communities helped us to rescue the chimps much more easily than we could have done without people’s support.
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Introducing Mama Lucy’s group
Category: Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Feb 02 2008 | By: admin
At Tacugama we try to create as natural an environment as possible for the chimpanzees. An important part of this is establishing groups that recreate the natural family hierarchies that exist in the wild - a tough job when our chimps come from all over Sierra Leone.
Mama Lucy’s group out in the enclosure
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Just a quick update
Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Jan 25 2008 | By: admin
First of all thanks very much to Theresa, Lucia and Wanda for your recent generous donations - we really appreciate your support.
It’s been a hectic week here at Tacugama so sorry for a short entry but we wanted to give you a quick update on Gaura. He’s settling well but his health is still cause for concern, with continuing low grade fever in the evenings. Malaria and typhoid are ruled out. We are performing other tests and also we will do an x-ray next week. Otherwise, he still has an excellent appetite being passionate about milk.
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On the ropes
Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Jan 16 2008 | By: admin
In the name of all of chimps of Tacugama, a big thanks to Wanda and Perri for their donations in December. Every penny counts here and we will put these generous contributions to good use.
Little Gaura has been feeling sick again. He recovered from his cold but is now developing low grade fever in the evenings, recurring every day so Dr. Rosa is running some tests. Poor Gaura! Thankfully, he hasn’t lost his appetite at all… he literally wolfs down everything and we have to stop him to prevent him getting an upset stomach. You will hear more of him as he settles down.
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Our first TKP Nature Club
Category: Chimpanzee, Education, Tacugama | Date: Jan 13 2008 | By: admin
Hi – this is Harriet here, one of the volunteers working at Tacugama. Bala’s asked me to update you on some great follow up on the Tacugama Kids Programme that he introduced to you in his second blog.
One of the goals of our first workshop was to encourage the teachers to start nature clubs in their schools. We were really pleased to get an invite shortly afterwards from one of the participating schools to the official launching of their nature club in December. Laia and I set off not knowing what to expect but as it turned out we were very pleasantly surprised!
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Keeping Gaura warm
Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Jan 10 2008 | By: admin
Gaura is doing fine so far. This week the harmattan winds (from the Sahara) are blowing hard around the sanctuary and it is very chilly. Despite sleeping indoors with blankets and so on, he is so tiny that in the morning he shivers and we’ve had to dress him in pyjamas to keep him warmer. In the mornings he sits outside with Posseh under the sun till it warms up. Otherwise, he is on medication as his respiratory infection was getting worse and he started having fever and losing appetite. Now he seems better, and is already drinking milk with enthusiasm.
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A new arrival
Category: Charlie Girl, Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Jan 07 2008 | By: admin
We have started 2008 by receiving our youngest resident, Gaura. He is a very tiny chimp, no more than 2.5 kg in weight and less than a year old. He comes from the Gaura Chiefdom in Eastern Sierra Leone. He was found in a trap in the Gola Forest (which has very recently been declared Sierra Leone’s second National Park) and a week later handed to the education officers of the Gola Forest Program; they immediately brought him to the sanctuary. Gaura looks frail and scared. He is running a cold but even being held by unfamiliar hairless individuals, he seems to be slowly adapting to his new surroundings. Thankfully he has a ravenous appetite gobbling up oranges and bananas. It’s just as well that Tico, Mary and Jettie have settled into their new family group as Mamma Posseh now has a new big demand on her time from Gaura. Posseh is being helped by one of our volunteers, Laia, and both are making sure he receives the best care we can give him.
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A sleepless night
Category: Charlie Girl, Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Jan 04 2008 | By: admin
A few days ago Perform, a 12 year old male, failed to turn up for the last feeding of the day. We give supplementary feeding to the older chimps who range in the bigger enclosures and forage for some of their own food. This also allows us to monitor them as not all choose to enter the dens at night to sleep, preferring instead to build their own nests outside. Earlier in the day Willie and Mosses had reported hearing him coughing but he was still quite active and seen busy mating with big Lucy. I was worried as Perform has never missed a meal before.
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New introductions
Category: Charlie Girl, Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Dec 31 2007 | By: admin
Everyone in camp is happy as three tiny tots: Mary, Tico and Jettie from quarantine are graduating to the introduction group. Whenever we receive newly rescued chimps they are isolated from the rest of the sanctuary’s chimpanzees for around three months so that we can bring them back to full health and ensure they’re not carrying any transmissible diseases. They frequently arrive in very poor shape and sometimes carrying injuries sustained through capture.
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Spreading the word
Category: Charlie Girl, Chimpanzee, Education, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Dec 18 2007 | By: admin
We’re gradually getting ourselves into the blogging habit and catching up on events over the last couple of weeks. Thanks for all the comments. The real time for Charlie Girl’s antics was about three weeks ago and today’s blog catches up on two weeks ago… we’ll soon be hot off the press and gradually fill you in on the sanctuary’s history!!
A week’s gone by and Charlie Girl’s cast is still on. But I am beginning to see some damage along the edges. She is certainly working on it! And I can tell by her crying that she isn’t happy being indoors. The family group is very important to chimpanzees and Charlie Girl is missing her group. It’s important that we can keep an eye on her recovery and try to make it as speedy as possible. Also the last thing we want is to go through the whole hospital procedure again especially in the middle of a busy week!
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Behind The Scenes At Tacugama Chimp Sanctuary.
Category: Charlie Girl, Chimpanzee, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Dec 10 2007 | By: admin
As another busy day comes to an end at Tacugama, our head care staff, Mosses, radios through that one of our chimpanzees, Charlie Girl, has a swollen arm and is not using it! Mosses has been with us here at Tacugama almost since we started in 1995 (even staying with the chimps through the worst of Sierra Leone’s civil war) and has amassed amazing knowledge about the Sanctuary’s residents.
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100% of your donation, minus a small bank fee, will go to your intended purpose.
Donations made here are safe.
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Donations Received
- Nov 3rd Yang H. USD60.00
- Oct 30th Lucia C. USD100.00
- Oct 25th Wildatart . USD20.00
- Oct 17th Christine C. USD20.00
- Oct 16th Wanda H. USD27.50
- Oct 10th Theresa S. USD20.00
- Oct 3rd Yang H. USD60.00
- Sep 25th Wildatart . USD20.00
- Sep 21st Lucia C. USD100.00
- Sep 17th Christine C. USD20.00
- Sep 10th Theresa S. USD20.00
- Sep 3rd Yang H. USD60.00
- Sep 1st Meghan H. USD25.00
- Aug 25th Wildatart . USD20.00
- Aug 19th Lucia C. USD100.00
- Aug 17th Christine C. USD20.00
- Aug 10th Theresa S. USD20.00
- Aug 5th Mills C. USD100.00
- Aug 3rd Yang H. USD60.00
- Aug 1st Tanya S. USD200.00
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About Bala
Bala Amarasekaran abandoned his original career as an accountant to establish Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in 1995. Together with the Government of Sierra Leone, he is working to secure the welfare and future of chimpanzees in Sierra Leone.
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Tacugama Blog