Archive for the ‘Introduction’ Category
Great news this week is that we’ve been able to release a fully fit Junior back with his friends, Kouze is especially happy to have Junior back. Thanks again to Drs Sorn and Andrew Routh for their lifesaving surgery. The experience does not seem to have frightened Junior at all, this is one of the first photos we were able to get of him in the enclosures! As we told you in the last post, Urgent underwent her first detailed health check under sedation last week and the results are good. Her blood is healthy and level of internal parasites much reduced. She’s still adjusting to the major change in her life, after 8 years at the end of a 1 metre chain she’s encountering a lot of new things at Tacugama. Although in quarantine, she can hear and see many other chimpanzees that did not exist in her previous life. Urgent is very friendly but still a bit unsettled and we’re now keeping a close eye on her grooming as she’s taken to plucking some of her hair. We’re hopeful that this is a passing phase in her adjustment. Urgent under sedation Tombo and Mac are settling in well. Tombo is now a big fan of her hammock having mastered the art of using it! She also had her first full health check this week and apart from slight anaemia is also doing well. Mac has discovered food in a big way and we now have to make sure he doesn’t eat too much, he really enjoys his bottle of milk. As you can imagine Mama Posseh has been really busy so Dr Rosa’s assistant, Juliana, has been lending a hand too. Mama Juliana has joined Tacugama to develop her laboratory skills and assist in Dr Rosa’s veterinary work. Being with Mac is a good contrast to the time that she’s spending learning laboratory practice. We thought you’d like the pictures of Mac below, we’ll have some of Tombo next time. Mac - looking a little happier than a week ago! Thanks for the latest donation from WildatArt, Mac and Tombo will make good use of it!
…. new chimpanzees received by Tacugama in a week. Yes 3, as we posted our last blog about Urgent we received news that another young chimp was on its way to us from the Gola Forest and that evening Mac arrived to join the Tacugama family. Mac arrives Mac with Dr Rosa, Bala, Hander and David from the Gola Forest Conservation Programme He is around a year old, a little older than Tombo – our first new arrival of the week – but badly underweight and very vulnerable. Mac checked in just under 3.5kgs We were not sure that he would survive the first 24hrs with us but with care and attention from Posseh, Dr Rosa and the team he is slowly gaining strength. We’re not very clear what happened to Mac or his family. The Gola Forest Conservation Programme were informed of his existence and when he was confiscated in Panguma village there was little information provided as to how he came to be with there. At this stage we only know that they had kept him for at least 4 or 5 days before he was rescued.
Given his low weight it will take us some time to be confident about Mac’s survival chances but the good sign is that he’s developing a healthy appetite for bananas along with his milk.
Tombo and Urgent are taking an interest in Mac’s arrival into the quarantine area and there’s plenty of pan-hooting taking place as they survey each other from safe distances. We’re pleased to say that Tombo’s dysentery has cleared and she’s settling in though still not convinced about her hammock as a replacement nest. Both she and Mac have a place to stay inside our clinic at night as, especially as rainy season is in full force; they’re too small to stay in the cooler quarantine cages at night. Tombo gets used to cuddles with Posseh
Urgent is gradually settling in her new quarters but giving her any medicine is proving a challenge as she’s easily detecting any attempts to hide it in her food. Although fairly healthy she’s riddled with intestinal parasites that need clearing. She’s currently presenting a large balloon – the swelling of her genital area – as she’s ready to mate and is already responding to the communication between the chimps in the outdoor enclosures.
Mac, Tombo and Urgent will have to stay in quarantine for at least three months so that we can ensure that they’re in a good state of health before we can introduce them to their new families. All being well Gaura should at least have good companions. He goes from strength to strength but is still too young to join the other infants in their enclosure. Gaura “helping” Mama Posseh to clean his quarters We’d like to say a huge thank-you to the great response from Lucia, Sherri, Christine and Wanda in contributing to the costs of Urgent’s rescue. Three new chimps in a week is no small challenge and your help is much appreciated by all of us at Tacugama.
We’re busy at the moment with Boyze, the other adult from Augusta’s group, who is being introduced to Phillip and his adult group. Boyze is a renowned bully and has no regard for anyone younger than him. Ideally, he should have gone with Gorilla and Solo to join the youngsters but it is a huge risk to take and we have decided instead to integrate him with the adult group. It will be a difficult task and we have to exercise a lot of patience to get it right. BOYZE
The rains are here and I’ve been really busy with lots of maintenance work at the sanctuary and some new introductions. Sorry for not giving you as much regular news recently but thanks for your comments and donations. We appreciate them very much. Little Gaura is fine. Gorilla is doing well in Baba’s group. Boyze, another adult male is being introduced to Phillip’s group as he was previously with Gorilla and Augusta. It started well but we’ve had some hic-ups and are progressing slowly. It is not easy to introduce an adult male into a well established adult group!
Poor little Gaura….he has gone through his first knock down! Despite his tolerant nature towards medical procedures, he had to be sedated as we all know dental surgery can be very painful.
This is proving to be a busy week indeed! We are hosting the upcoming PASA (Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance) Managers’ Meeting, due to start on the 30th of this month, so we’re finalizing the arrangements for this. We’re really looking forward to catch up on everyone’s news and progress.
Hi again - it’s great to be able to start another blog entry by saying thank you; we’ve received a generous donation from Antonio C. His donation will go towards our community support work and you can read below on how the Tacugama team is expanding…. Close to Tacugama are the villages of Regent and Bathurst, founded by freed slaves some 200 years ago. Both villages are very scenic, surrounded by beautiful hills and wooden houses based on creole architecture. Regent can also boast of having the famous St.Charles church, the oldest stone church in West Africa. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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
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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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. 
