Tacugama

Category: Education, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Nov 16 2009 | By: tacugama

Friday 13th November saw the arrival of another two chimpanzee infants at Tacugama. Just as the weekly Tacugama Kids Programme was in full cry with another thirty rural schoolchildren on a full day visit to the sanctuary, Samson and Delila were carried up the hill and through the gates to join the Tacugama family.

Willie takes down details from Mr Bangura

The chimpanzees arrived with us as the result of the positive action from one of the Ministry of Agriculture’s livestock officers. Based at Sierra Leone’s international airport at Lungi, on one of his routine visits to the farm of an ex-patriot hotel manager he found the baby chimps in residence. He advised the man that keeping the chimps was illegal and that he should contact Tacugama to arrange for their transfer. On learning that the chimps were still at the farm a month later, he again advised that they should be handed over and fortunately a few days later was contacted by the hotel manager and asked to bring them to the sanctuary. He arrived with the man who had cared for the chimps since their arrival at the farm.

Samson
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Delila
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Samson and Delila (formerly Lucy but renamed as we already have three Lucy’s at Tacugama!) are clearly very used to being with people despite being so young - probably around eighteen months old. We know little about their background - apparently Samson was rescued in very poor health from a village to the north of the airport. Delila had been carried around and dressed up in children’s clothes for photographs. They are both in a fair condition though Samson has a bad skin infection. They will go through quarantine together for the next three months joining Chippe, Thulani, Abu, Sunny, Blama and Kangari; Mama Posseh has her work cut out.
At least that day we were able to introduce the carer of the chimps to the children at the sanctuary and they explained what they had learned that day about why chimps should be left in the wild. He and the livestock officer left with a clear message to take back to Lungi, let’s hope it spreads.

Enforcing the message
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Tess will soon bring you an update on all our quarantine residents and how Gaura and his group are progressing.
As you can tell we are getting increasingly desperate to raise the US$70,000 that it will take to fence two further forest enclosures so that the growing number and growing size of our chimps can all benefit from an environment as close to their natural habitat as possible. Right now we are very close to being full up with 98 chimps reliant on us for care. Hopefully our trip to Europe will deliver some results. We’ll keep you informed.

Tags: airport, Chimpanzee, Lungi, 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

6 responses so far

Category: Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Sep 13 2009 | By: tacugama

Hello all, apologies for the lack of a blog over the last couple of weeks but a hectic schedule and an erratic internet connection (prbably because of the rain) have kept us off line for longer than planned.

As you can see from looking at the Wildlife Direct blogs, East Africa is suffering a bad drought yet in West Africa we’re getting almost too much rain. It has been more than two weeks since we have had the pleasure of seeing the sun…. rain, rain and yet more rain has filled the skies. Good for water reserves but so many grey days can bring down even the most optimistic! Yesterday the sun made an appearance giving us a splendid sunny day. The locals (both man and animal!) took advantage of the heat, putting things out to dry…. See for yourself!

Tarmac (on one of the best roads in Sierra Leone!) makes a great place to dry clothes when washing lines are scarce
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Tags: Africa, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama

One response so far

Category: Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Aug 04 2009 | By: tacugama

Yesterday sadly saw two more small chimps arrive at Tacugama - Abu and Thulani add to the recent orphan arrivals of Chippe, Blama and Sunny and leave us close to bursting at the seams. We now have 96 chimpanzees needing Tacugama’s care.

Thulani was taken to the Gola Forest Project team in the south-east of Sierra Leone on Saturday by a local man hoping to sell him - he was quickly corrected and Thulani was confiscated. The Gola forest team have brought several chimps to us including Gola, Gaura, Urgent, Bai Nyaa, Mac and Jessica.

Handa Zeller with Thulani before travelling to Tacugama - the t-shirt says it all
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After a long drive on difficult, rainy season roads, Thulani arrived late last night. He’s probably two years old and not been with people for long. Small and nervous and with a slight cold, he’ll need closer attention from Posseh than Abu.

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

3 responses so far

Category: Gaura, Introduction, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: May 08 2009 | By: tacugama

After such a sad week last week, we are pleased to be able to bring you better news this week.

It was finally time for young Bruno to leave quarantine and join the famous five: Gaura, Tombo, Mac, Bai Nyaa and Jessica! He could tell the day was different and seemed very happy to accompany Mama Posseh as she walked him over to the rest of the babies.

Happy Young Bruno
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Tags: Chimpanzee, EMCV, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

5 responses so far

Category: Gaura, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Mar 25 2009 | By: tacugama

Congo - our wild chimpanzee visitor - continues to come to Tacugama with her daughters. Her older daughter - now almost five years old - is gaining confidence and becoming more independant of Congo. This is a typical view that we get of her as she watches activity at camp….
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Category: Chimpanzee, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Feb 16 2009 | By: tacugama

I was with Dr. Rosa in Freetown doing some errands and she was commenting on the fact the Jessica will be completing her last health check and in a few days she will be out of quarantine. We were happy that this is the first time since last year our quarantine section will be free of chimps. Sadly, our happiness did not last long! We got a call from one of our former education officer … a baby chimp has been handed over to them together with an official handing over note!

NAME BRUNO
SEX MALE
BROUGHT TO TE CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF SIERRA LEONE BY MUSA SANU KNOTEH
CAUGHT IN KABALA, SPENT LESS THAN THREE WEEKS IN MAKENI
FED REGULARLY ON FRUITS AND SOME RICE
REMARKS LOOKS PHYSICALLY OK, BUT DIRTY.

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Tags: Bruno, Chimpanzee, Sierra Leone, Tacugama

9 responses so far

Category: Chimpanzee, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Dec 16 2008 | By: tacugama

Sadly we have to report the arrival of another very young chimpanzee at Tacugama - Jessica was brought to us late last week by the Gola Forest project to whom she was handed by her keeper in a sack. They quickly made life more comfortable for her before bringing her to the sanctuary.

Jessica on arrival at Tacugama
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As you can imagine she was very confused and distressed. We estimate that she’s about 14 months old and that she was only very recently separated from her mother - she’s very wary of humans and, from her quarantine den, calls all the time to the other chimps at the sanctuary. She’s fortunately in reasonable health and gradually learning to trust Mama Posseh as she tries to replace the love and care that her natural mother would have given to Jessica. Continue Reading »

Tags: Chimpanzee, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

6 responses so far