Max Planck | Tacugama

Sad days at Tacugama

Category: Tacugama | Date: Jun 23 2009 | By: tacugama

Sorry we’ve not been blogging as much over the last couple of weeks - it’s been a tough time here at Tacugama recently.

We were catching up with ourselves after the month long intensive health check programme and putting all the paperwork in place in mid-May when one of the chimpanzees in Mama Lucy and Joke’s group, Mark, failed to come in from the forested enclosure as usual at the end of the day. Joke also failed to come in and was sitting at the top of one of the tall trees calling to the care staff. The rest of the group came into the dens but with Joke in the enclosure there was no way for us to go and look for Mark. Joke has grown into a strong and powerful male and we can take no risks. Joke finally sensed that we were trying to help and came into the dens but with the light failing, looking for Mark proved unsuccessful that evening. We were out again at first light the next morning and sadly found Mark dead, another likely victim of EMCV. It was a bitter moment as we had just completed all the vaccinations but it takes time for resistance to develop and for poor Mark it was too late. It was a sad end to an intensive and positive programme with great team work from all our staff, volunteers and the Max Planck team but demonstrated just how vitally the protection from EMCV is needed.

Tags: Chimpanzee, Max Planck, Sierra Leone, Stichting AAP, Tacugama

9 responses so far

EMCV strikes again with tragic consequences

Category: Tacugama | Date: Apr 29 2009 | By: tacugama

This has been a sad, long weekend for all of us at Tacugama and it’s looking very much that EMCV is the cause. Just as we are working hard to get all the chimps vaccinated against EMCV, the virus has struck again causing the death of two of our chimpanzees and leaving a third one ill. We already have Cheetah battling to recover from the infection that struck her almost a month ago. As you can imagine it is so upsetting and frustrating as we currently have a team working hard at camp to vaccinate all of the chimps against this virus but we had not yet reached those who succumbed in the last few days.

It was last Wednesday that the care staff raised the alarm for Marcel and Kate, both in Joke and Mama Lucy’s group. They came into the night dens looking very weak and disoriented, much the same as Cheetah earlier in the month. We spent an anxious night monitoring them - there are no real remedies available - and were pleased with how they appeared a little stronger the next morning. Mid afternoon on Thursday disaster struck as they both started vomiting and deteriorated rapidly. The team working on the vaccinations were available to take the best possible care but despite this poor Kate quickly passed away with nothing that we could do to save her. Marcel fortunately stabilised and so far does not seem to have been as badly affected as Cheetah.

Marcel is fortunately recovering
.

Tags: Chimpanzee, EMCV, Max Planck, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, Taronga Zoo, wildlife

10 responses so far

Worrying about Cheetah

Category: Tacugama | Date: Apr 06 2009 | By: tacugama

A week ago Cheetah, one of the adult female chimps in Philip’s group, showed up at the dens very ill at the end of the day after having missed the feeding sessions throughout the whole day. She had been fit and healthy that morning and suddenly she was so weak that she could hardly walk, her arms and legs were stiff and uncoordinated. Over the following days she has been in a critical state, vomiting anything she has eaten and having to be sedated daily to infuse liquids and give medication. We really thought she would not make it.

Cheetah receiving treatment and comfort from Bala and Dr Rosa
.