Tacugama

A chimp called Somebody…at times this name causes confusion!

Meet Somebody – the latest arrival at Tacugama who was handed in voluntarily last week after her owners visited us for a tour. Many Sierra Leoneans visit the sanctuary and enjoy seeing the chimps in their forest enclosures whilst also learning about their behaviour, endangered conservation status and the fact that is illegal to hunt or keep chimpanzees as pets.

Somebody is about four years old and comes from southern Sierra Leone. The owner had bought the young chimp from his brother who had caught her in one of his snares a year ago.  The snare severed four of the fingers on her right hand and the tips of two of her toes. Those wounds have healed fully  and she is amazingly able to manipulate all manner of materials and swing from the ropes.

After damage by a snare  only one deformed finger remains.

Somebody is a cheeky, adventurous chimp – as well as the damage incurred by the snare she also carries a scar on her chest from an electric shock that she gained from climbing a pylon whilst staying with her owners. She’s constantly keeping an eye on what’s going on and testing her surroundings- it looks like quite a character has arrived at Tacugama!  She will spend the next three months in quarantine before she joins one of the existing groups.

Still ripping up some cardboard very effectively with six fingers.

Somebody is the second chimp to arrive at Tacugama in the last two months – just before Christmas Reggae was rescued and we’ll tell you more about her soon.

The first eight months of 2012 has seen Tacugama receiving eight new orphan chimpanzees, the last 5 of which have arrived in less than two months putting our quarantine team at full stretch.  In the whole of 2011, just 4 chimps came through our doors.  We’ve also been told of another two older chimps being held captive in the provinces but right now we have our hands full coping with the recent arrivals, most of whom are less than 2 years old.

As regular readers of our blog will know, Tacugama has been at full capacity for the last two years – in 2010 for the first time ever we had to refuse entry to some new chimps due to a lack of space.  Throughout this year we have been working hard to construct new night dens and enclosures that will enable us to continue to undertake our law enforcement role and still ensure that the chimps in our care can enjoy a healthy environment and live in as close to a natural environment as possible.  Knowing that this extra space will soon be available has helped us to deal with this influx of arrivals.

The harsh fact associated with these arrivals is that for these 8 arrivals probably between another 40 -80 chimps will have been killed in Sierra Leone, victims of habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and bushmeat hunting; these infants are the by-product. It is clear that we need to urgently expand our pilot programme working with rural communities across the country to develop their guardianship for their environment and the wildlife that surrounds them.

We’ve already introduced you to Nico, who arrived in a very poor condition in January.  Considering that at one point we feared he would lose his right arm due the the injury he sustained, we’re pleased to report that he’s recovering amazingly well and can now use his arm and hand quite well.

Our next arrival in March was Mortes – he’s about 1.5 years old and came from one of the principle diamond mining areas in the country – Kono.  Held by one of the local workers at a small diamond mine for 3 months he finally asked them for help when caring for Mortes became too time-consuming.  They contacted Tacugama and brought Mortes on a 5-hour car journey to the sanctuary.  He’s settled in well, passed his quarantine period of 90 days and has now been introduced to Sara and AJ.

A little shy at first

Mortes arrives

He meets Willie

Mortes (r) plays with AJ & Sara

A few days after Mortes arrived, we were brought a very young chimp – Jibo – who was around 5 weeks old. It was claimed he had been found lying abandoned in the bush – a very unlikely event. Poor Jibo was carrying an infection and despite our best efforts he died within a few days of arriving at Tacugama.

Jibo on arrival

Mid-June saw Ringo arrive. He’d been found in a remote part of south-west of Sierra Leone and reported to us by the government’s District Forest Officer who arranged the confiscation and brought him to Freetown. Ringo is almost 4 years old and had been kept captive for a couple of years before he was uncovered. He’s a calm, happy chimp and is progressing well through his quarantine period.

Willie collects Ringo from the DFO in Freetown

Ringo moves into his new home

Relaxing in the sun

Just a week after the arrival of Ringo, staff of one of the mining support companies, RACEC Africa, brought Whinnie to us. Just about 1.5 years old, she was seen by the roadside in Port Loko district. The staff explained the law to the community and obtained their permission to bring the chimp to Tacugama. Whinnie’s small size belies her huge appetite!

Whinnie on arrival

Whinnie enjoys some time with Posseh

Whinnie meets our resident vet, Rupak

Ten days later saw Hashi arrive at Tacugama’s gates. Also around 1.5 years old, she came from the north-east of Sierra Leone. Since the beginning of the year she’d been cared for by a family in Freetown on behalf of another relative. News had been spreading of our work to confiscate another chimp (see more below) and as Hashi’s carer was a policewoman she began to fear discovery and so voluntarily brought her to the sanctuary. Although clearly devastated to have to give her up, she acknowledged that it was the right thing to do despite a last minute call from the relative to ask us if he could take Hashi back when he returned to Sierra Leone in September! He received a short and clear answer….

Josephine and Mohamed with Hashi

Posseh prepares to take Hashi

Just a week later as our programme manager, Frankie, was driving to the sanctuary she was stopped by some small children who reported that they had a chimp for sale and led her to the family holding the chimp. Yet another small chimp – only about a year old – was tied in their small compound. The family had brought the chimp from the north-east just two days previously and were surprised that news had already spread. The senior member of the family was absent and to remove the chimp immediately would have caused many problems for the children. Several phone calls and meetings later Tetani was handed over by the family, full of cold. He’s been under close veterinary supervision and is slowly regaining his health.

Frankie & Willie remove the rope from Tetani’s waist

Getting a reassuring hug from Posseh…

… before a warming clean up

The most recent chimp to arrive at Tacugama is Lola, who again is around 1.5 years old. She first came to our attention at the beginning of May when we started to receive many calls from the expatriate community who were seeing Lola playing in a beauty salon and casino operated by a Chinese national. Our initial request to the owner to hand over the chimp met with a negative response and we had to exercise some patience to allow government procedures to take their course. Tacugama worked closely with the Government of Sierra Leone on this case to make sure that the wildlife laws were understood and upheld. Lola was finally brought to Tacugama last Saturday.

Willie receives Lola at Tacugama

As you can imagine our resources are being stretched to their limits as we cope with the new arrivals, build the new dens and enclosures and also look for grants that will allow us to develop our community outreach work and so reduce the problems at their source. If you can help please follow this link to go to the donations page on our website, thank you for your support.  We’ll keep you up to date on how our new chimps are doing and bring you more news on Gaura and others that you’ve been asking us about.

The third in our recent introductions of chimps. – time for Perry to meet Molly.  Even very young chimps can become set in their ways and while Molly was very excited to meet her new playmate, Perry was not quite so sure……   See how their story evolves with these fun pictures. Enjoy!

Molly says: "Hi Perry!"

Perry: "Don't you dare touch me!"

Mama Posseh takes them to the forest, a neutral territory

Perry:"who does Molly think she is?"

"hmm... how can i get my mama back?"

Molly: "C'mon Perry let's be friends!"

Perry: "I said no touching!"

Molly: "Up to you...I will play with Mama Posseh's hair!"

Mama Posseh tries another venue

Perry: "I am not going to fall for you..."

Perry: "Need to think of a plan to get Molly off mama"

"Maybe if I pretend I am not interested and move away, I will have a chance"

Perry: "Right, I got her, now it is time to run fast!"

Molly: "Get out Perry, this is my spot"

Mama Posseh takes them to Perry's place to try again

Perry: "Now that I am in my quarters, I feel happy!"

"Sooo, let's play!"

Molly:"Who can understand boys?"

Perry: "Catch me if you can!"

Molly:"This is fun, you see!"

So much excitement...time for a milk break!

To be continued…..and if you want to read more about how Perry and Molly met Tacugama, check these blogs: Perry & Molly

Slowly but steadily, Nico’s machete wounds are healing. As for his fractured bone, we had to do a new cast (he chewed part of the first one). We were lucky to have the help from an experienced orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Michael Ford, who kindly agreed to come to the sanctuary to check on Nico’s broken arm. Dr. Ford accumulates over 45 years of medical practise in Sierra Leone and as he was telling us during his visit, he has seen many broken bones during the 10-year brutal civil war but he was very excited as this was his first chimp patient!

Dr. Michael Ford setting a new cast on Nico's arm

Nico getting all the help

It was very reassuring to see his expert hands evaluating the fracture, feeling the new bone callous that is being formed and making a new cast to keep the bone in place. We really appreciate his help. Nico is one lucky guy to get so much attention!

As Nico continues to feel better, he is less tolerant and is busier trying to get rid of the cast….let’s hope he keeps it on for at least the next 10 days! We will keep you updated.

Nico's new cast being slowly chewed off

We received an urgent call last week from Addax Bioenergy to say that a young, injured chimpanzee had been seen at a village close to their operations and that they were enlisting the help of the police to have the chimp confiscated and brought to Tacugama. After lengthy discussions with the community and the police, Addax were finally able to take possession of the chimp and arrange to bring him to the sanctuary. Named Nico, after the security manager who was heavily involved in securing his namesake’s transfer from the community, he urgently needed medical attention.

An exhausted Nico on arrival at Tacugama

Not surprisingly after his ordeal, Nico was not too happy with people – we could see three machete wounds on his back and his right arm was roughly bandaged. One of the Addax team had previously visited Tacugama and remembered some chimpanzee; he’d managed to cajole Nico into eating and drinking a little before the journey and get him into the vehicle but after a three-hour journey the youngster wanted nothing more to do with anyone.

Nico was not even willing to listen to Willie as we tried to cajole him out of the car

We decided to anaesthetise him immediately to ensure that we could give him the treatment he needed. Our major concern was for his upper arm and, on removing the bandage that must have been applied by a community member, we discovered a badly infected machete wound open to the bone, with maggots in his tissue and that the bone was broken. As we cleaned him and examined him closer, we also found gun shot embedded in his leg and hand.

The machete wound on his arm after cleaning

Two of the wounds on his back - he has a third at the base of his spine

We were going to need an x-ray to see how bad the break to Nico’s arm was and to determine whether the infection had spread into the bone. It was going to be another two days before we could get the x-ray done so in the meantime our priority was to give him a thorough clean up, make him as comfortable as possible and start fighting the infection with antibiotics. [Luckily Nico has arrived as Rupak, our current vet, has extra support from Dr Rosa - back at Tacugama for two months after having been our resident vet for 5 years.]

Trying to immobilize Nico's arm as much as possible

Willie makes him comfortable as he comes round from the anaesthesia

He continued to sleep for several hours, an important part of his recovery from the ordeal he's suffered

On Monday this week we were helped by a local hospital to take the x-ray and the good news was that there were no signs that the infection had spread into his bone and the break was not as bad as we feared with just a single break point and no loose bone shards. However it revealed yet another shotgun pellet.

The small bright sphere is yet another shotgun pellet embedded in Nico's body

With a clear picture of the damage, Rupak and Rosa could now plan to set the bone. They did a first cast in the middle of the week and it was then off for another x-ray to check the setting. They’ve had to leave a hole in the cast so that we can keep cleaning the machete wound. It finally looks as though the infection is starting to recede and the tissue is showing first signs of healing. The cast will need replacing again next week as this first one is a temporary one while we treat the infection.

Given the weak and exhausted state that Nico arrived in, we’re pleased so far with the progress that he’s been able to make. He’s building up a healthy appetite and loves the mangos that are now in season. Unfortunately the nature of his wounds means that he’s having to be regularly anaesthetised for treatment and this means his negative view of people continues. We have no real idea how Nico came to be captured but the gunshot pellets make us suspect that members of his family must have been killed, perhaps by bushmeat hunters, perhaps by farmers protecting their crops, even though gun possession is illegal in Sierra Leone. Addax have gone back to the community involved and sensitised people there as to the protected status of chimpanzees – one silver lining of Nico’s story is that we hope to increase the sensitisation of the local communities around his home with their support.

Enjoying some mango....

... and yet more mango!

We’ll keep you in touch with Nico’s progress – he’s still very vulnerable but so far… so good…

Thanks to IPPL UK we are starting to make a little bit of space at Tacugama so that we can start to address the waiting list of chimps that has sadly been building up as we are at full capacity. IPPL came to the rescue with funding that is allowing us to build flexible den space to accommodate our younger chimps; they have had to stay in the quarantine section so far as there was nowhere else for them to go.  These cages will allow the youngsters to be accommodated together, closer to the existing groups and free up the quarantine cages. Even better, we’re using a design that means the cages can be moved in the future if we need them in different locations.

Assembling the cage

Almost ready, one last coat of paint to go

The first occupants should be moving in before the end of this month and we’ll bring you an update soon.
The construction work has certainly made Gaura and friends curious to see what’s happening close to home…. from left to right:Mac, Gaura, Jessica, Bai Nyaa and Bruno

Sunny and Blama have made a big move and are in the final stages of being integrated with Philip’s group. They’ve been staying in the one of the night dens for the group and gradually meeting all of their new family in the neighbouring dens. They’re adjusting very well to the new faces and behaviours and a big plus for them is that Jumo, son of Julie – the dominant female of the group, has really taken to the girls. That acceptance at the higher levels of the group hierarchy bodes well for their acceptance by all of the group. All being well they’ll be meeting face to face in the next few days.

The census workshop we held a couple of weeks ago is leading to some good follow up actions. Cotton Tree News, one of the important radio producers in Sierra Leone paid a visit to Tacugama this week to record a half hour feature on the importance of chimpanzees and the work of Tacugama. We’re now planning a series of follow up broadcasts to continue building and spreading the message.

Posseh being interviewed by Bassie Kanu of CTN for their Earth Watch series, our education officer, Obana (right), was also interviewed along with Willie Tucker

Meanwhile Jimmy has been vetting some of the flip charts that were produced during the workshop to make sure that our outputs met his high standards!

It has been a very busy few months at Tacugama but our 15th year was always going to be a hectic one. Fortunately being able to witness some of the fun that the chimpanzees have together helps raise a smile even on the most challenging of days. We’d like to leave you for today with this bundle of fun and laughter that we were able to capture for you a few days ago – hope it makes your day better too!

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Young Sarah came to us in April this year, the last chimp that we have been able to accept at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary as we are at maximum capacity until we can erect much needed semi-wild enclosures for our existing chimps and create more space.  You can follow this link to read more about Sarah’s arrival with us.   We made an exception for her as she is so young and Darren, who rescued her from local hunters, was leaving Sierra Leone.

Sarah on arrival with Darren and Mama Posseh

We thought that you’d like to see some updated pictures of Sarah that we managed to take last week on a rare sunny day in the middle of Sierra Leone’s rainy season. She’s doing amazingly well considering her very rough start to life, losing her mum at around 6 months old. She’s developing an adventurous and happy character. In the last few weeks we’ve been introducing her more to another member of our care staff, Manso, so that she becomes used to others also taking care of her (it also helps to give Posseh a break!).

You can see below how much she’s grown since she arrived:

Sarah with Posseh and Manso

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She’s still too small to join Tompey, Kangari, Chippe, Thulani, Samson and Delila who have all finished their time in quarantine and are waiting to be able to move into some enclosure space but still greets them happily every day as they each get a turn to move around riding on Posseh’s back. Tompey gets especially excited when she sees Sarah.

We’re making gradual progress on raising the funds for the new enclosures and hopefully it won’t be too long before we can tell Sarah that she can leave her quarantine space and move out into an enclosure with friends to play with.

Basma is growing into a healthy young girl with her mother Babes and all the group around her. She has had no health or social problems and has become a part of the group! She is still very young (her first birthday is on 11 July) and is always seen with her mother, Babes.

Basma clings to her mother

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You will have probably read about Sarah in a recent blog – she was recently the first chimp in Sierra Leone that we have ever said no to accepting because we are at maximum capacity.  She has been well cared for by Darren, an Australian working at the iron ore mine where Sarah was brought by the son of a hunter hoping to sell her.  From the limited information Darren was able to gain, it appears that Sarah’s mother was trapped and killed.

Frankie helps Darren fill out Sarah’s history

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Chippe and Thulani finished quarantine a while ago, but due to lack of enclosure space are still in the dens. Mama Posseh has been  taking them to the forest regularly  to let them play in the trees.  We are happy to say they spend most of their time exploring in the trees rather than wanting to play with Posseh! They stick to each other whilst exploring, where one goes the other always follows!

Chippe and Thulani’s first trip to the forest

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