Tacugama

Category: Education, TKP, Tacugama | Date: Nov 19 2009 | By: tacugama

Hi, this is Stephanie, the new volunteer for the TKP. I have been here for 2 months, arriving just in time to organise the start of the 2009/10 programme. The Tacugama Kids Programme started in 2007, you can find out how the programme started and how the project progressed. Please read on to find out about the success of this year’s programme!

We’ve had smiling faces all around with an exciting and successful start to this year’s Tacugama Kids’ Programme (TKP). This year the programme is working with 11-13 year old students in 11 rural schools around the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve (WAPFR). The main objective of the program is to encourage a positive change in attitudes and practices with regards to local environmental issues.

Making educational posters to teach their friends about chimpanzees and rainforest conservation
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The first stage of the programme was a survey of the local secondary schools. It was motivating to see how many of the schools are located right between the forest reserve and the breathtakingly beautiful peninsula coastline; consequently the communities rely heavily upon the environment for their livelihoods. It was also inspiring to see the determination and perseverance of the teachers in the face of a desperate lack of resources, even holding classes in huts made of woven mats and on benches of sticks. One coordinator from each school was invited to take part in a training workshop at the sanctuary before taking responsibility for teaching the theoretical lessons of the TKP programme.

Excited students at Huntingdon Secondary School receive their new Tacugama Kids Programme exercise books
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Coordinators from the sanctuary also run activities in each school to reinforce the teaching curriculum, starting with a simple ‘Clean-up the School Environment’ activity. This aims to teach students that keeping the environment clean can be beneficial for the environment and their own hygiene. As well as the enjoyment of the activity there was an important underlying lesson which we hope will be passed on to the rest of the community.

Having fun and cleaning up the environment at the War Wounded Academy
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Class discussion to conclude the activity; Peninsular Secondary School found the highest volue of rubbish was plastic bags!
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The week finished off with the TKP in full swing as the first group of young adventurers from Mountain Rural Secondary School visited the sanctuary. It was especially rewarding to see some of the students who had been members of past TKP nature clubs remembering and sharing their knowledge of the chimpanzees. The day was enjoyed by all but the moment that will be most memorable for me will be the students making the ‘promise wall’. By placing their hand print on the wall the students promised to ‘Protect the chimpanzees, their rainforest habitat and their own local environment.’

Pa Willie takes students from Mountain Rural Secondary School on a tour of the sanctuary
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“We promise to protect the chimpanzees, the rainforest and our local environment”
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As the poda-poda (school mini-bus) drove away with the students cheering “We love this place, we want to stay forever!” it not only gave us a chance to breathe a sigh of relief at the successful completion of the first week but also a newly fuelled determination and enthusiasm for the opportunities and challenges to come in the weeks ahead.

Tags: Chimpanzee, Education, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, TKP, wildlife

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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

2 responses so far

Category: Tacugama | Date: Nov 10 2009 | By: tacugama

Next year - 2010 will mark 15 years since Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary was formally opened in September 1995.

To mark the occasion we have printed a limited number of commemorative calendars and they will be available from next week for you to buy.  Each month features one of Tacugama’s chimps and a useful planner.  They’ll make a great gift for your friends and family (and you!) for the holiday season and help to spread the message about protecting chimpanzees.

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The calendars will be on sale from the sanctuary in Sierra Leone and also available by post from the UK for the sum of $20.

If you’d like to order yours for delivery to your door then please follow both of these two steps:
1 Make your payment using the Wildlife Direct one-time donation calendar option on the right hand side of the blog page
2 Send an email to adopt@tacugama.sl confirming your name, delivery address (including country and postal/zip code)

Thank you for your support and we hope you enjoy commemorating fifteen years of Tacugama with us!

(ps the calendars measure just less than 30cm x 60cm when fully open)

Tags: , anniversary, calendar 2010, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama

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Category: Tacugama | Date: Nov 04 2009 | By: tacugama

Hi, this is Tess here again. Following the earlier blog where we asked you to send us your questions for Mama Posseh who works in quarantine, she has now finally finished answering your questions. She was very happy that so many people around the world are interested and appreciate the work she does!

With the help of Willie, the camp supervisor, Posseh gets down to answering all your questions
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How did you come to work at Tacugama?
I came to work at Tacugama as a cook by Mr Bala, and then later joined the sanctuary as a full member of staff dealing with the chimpanzees; deployed in the quarantine section as a foster mother.

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Tags: Africa, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama

9 responses so far

Category: Tacugama | Date: Oct 30 2009 | By: tacugama

If you’re going to be in Barcelona, Spain on the 11th or 13th of November or London, UK on the 21st November then we’d love to meet up with you!!

Bala Amarasekaran, Tacugama’s founder and Programme Director will be speaking at two fundraising evenings being organised on our behalf and if you could come along and give us your support it would be great to see you there.

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Tags: Barcelona, Chimpanzee, DFID, fundraising, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Oct 26 2009 | By: tacugama

A Summer in Tacugama is the translation of the title “Estiu a Tacugama”, the first novel written about Tacugama. It’s been written in Catalan (the language of the north-eastern region of Spain) by Pilar Garriga, the sister of our resident vet Dr Rosa. The book is written for teenagers and, although fiction, is based heavily on real life experiences at Tacugama and in Sierra Leone.

This is Pilar Garriga’s third novel for teenagers following the work of Dr Rosa! The first two were based on Dr Rosa’s earlier veterinary work with orangutans in Indonesia - they’ve become very popular in Spain and are used to support the Catalan school curriculum. We are very proud of having Tacugama as the main subject in a book and we hope that it can soon be translated into English for others to read and enjoy.

Tags: Chimpanzee, Estiu a Tacugama, novel, Pilar Garriga, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

3 responses so far

Category: Tacugama | Date: Oct 10 2009 | By: tacugama

Hello, this is Tess, one of Tacugama’s volunteers, blogging today.

As some of you know Mama Posseh is the responsible for the quarantine section at Tacugama where she looks after the new arrivals for their 3 months quarantine period. She gives them lots of care and attention during their stay here, acting as their foster mother. The new chimps are often weak, distressed and their backgrounds unknown. Posseh works very hard, an important part of her job is keeping the area clean to prevent any spread of diseases, preparing their food as well as helping the chimps recover from their trauma. She also helps Dr Rosa to administer any medications needed.

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Tags: Africa, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama

8 responses so far

Category: Tacugama | Date: Oct 03 2009 | By: tacugama

Thanks to Lush in Canada we should be able to share lots more photos with you of the wildlife in and around Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary!

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We received a donation through their Charity Pot scheme which has allowed us to buy some digital camera traps and will also help us to replace our aging supply vehicle. The camera traps will play an important role in helping us to record and confirm wild chimpanzee movements and which other species share their environment. We’re first using the camera traps around Tacugama and in the future we’ll move them further afield to expand our knowledge.

With the help of Joko, our patrol officer, we set up some initial trials with the cameras and we’ve been pleased with the results. Some of the first shots we captured were of Congo – the wild chimp who occasionally visits the sanctuary – together with her two daughters. It’s been very difficult to get images of Congo in the past and it’s great that the traps have done the job for us! Joko’s also very pleased that the cameras should help him with his important patrolling work that protects the forest reserve areas surrounding Tacugama from hunters.

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Tags: camera traps, Chimpanzee, conservation, Lush Cosmetics, photos, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

2 responses so far

Category: Education, TKP, Tacugama | Date: Sep 25 2009 | By: tacugama

Now that the rainy season is starting to recede (though there’s a huge thunderstorm happening as I write this blog!) it’s time for the schools to reopen and children to step back into the classroom. We’ve mentioned a bit about the Tacugama Kids Programme in previous blogs and we’re busy getting everything in place for this year’s environmental education programme to start. We’re pleased to welcome a new volunteer, Stephanie Brown, who’s helping to co-ordinate the programme over the next few months. She’ll also be posting a few blogs during her stay to keep you in touch with this important part of Tacugama’s work.

One of the schools that we’re pleased to be welcoming to the programme this year is Hope School which was started by Mr Bundu, a qualified teacher from the local area. He found several children who were unable to go to school but were willing to learn, so he decided to do something about it. Most of the children are girls from very poor homes, where only the boy gets to go to school. Others include orphans and those living in displacement camps. Originally starting as occasional reading classes for a few enthusiastic pupils, the project began to grow with the help of voluntary teachers, and many more children ranging from 3 to 15 years old joined. The project, housed in a large semi-constructed house quickly became overcrowded. The makeshift rooms held several classes at once, some were so full that the children spilled out of the building, attending their classes through open windows.

Overspilling classroom at Hope School…
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Tags: sanctuary, school, Sierra Leone, Tacugama. chimpanzee, wildlife

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Category: Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Sep 16 2009 | By: tacugama

Over the last few weeks we’ve been gradually introducing Gaura and his group to the small infant enclosure that is being used by another seven small chimpanzees. The older babies were brought inside each day for a couple of hours to allow Gaura’s team to get used to the new space on their own and the end of last week finally saw both groups being introduced together and sharing the enclosure.

Tess Wiggans - a volunteer who has been at Tacugama since May - writes more about their introduction below, she’s taken some great photos for you! Tess will help us to stay in touch with you and will write some more of our blogs over the coming months:

The youngest group of chimps, consisting of Gaura, Tombo, Jessica, Mac, Banyaii, Bruno and Yoyema are finally having more freedom. The babies were first introduced to the two youngest in the group, Chica and Joyce along with Nita, a very gentle female. The first meeting couldn’t have gone smoother, with Joyce making friends with Jessica right from the start, and Nita acting as foster mother to the youngest ones!

Nita gives Tombo a hug
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Tags: Africa, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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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

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Category: Tacugama | Date: Aug 18 2009 | By: tacugama

It is wet, wet, and wet here! August has the highest rainfall on record in Sierra Leone (almost 100cm in one month only) and it is no different this year.

Kouze in the rain
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Everyone is soaked to the skin. Staff keep taking turns to sit around the kitchen fire in between their busy schedule. The hairy ones are having it tough too. Although the bigger boys and girls are used to this, some of the smaller chimps are down with the usual coughs and colds that this time of the year brings, but they are coping. (Our thoughts and best wishes are with the Limbe team as they work hard to treat the pneumonia hitting their primates.)

It is difficult to see the chimps in the bigger enclosures except during feeding times as everyone takes cover in the bush from the downpours. Yesterday we had a hole in the clouds and some sunlight emerged through it for a few minutes. I was happy enough to take the camera out and the chimps in Philip’s group were happy to come and see some sunlight too! They went into a grooming frenzy. Every single one was grooming and getting groomed. Even Babes was in the middle of it and allowed big boy, Jido, to groom her month old baby.

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

9 responses 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: Tacugama | Date: Aug 03 2009 | By: tacugama

Our July 2009 newsletter is now available for you to catch up on a summary of our work for the first six months of 2009.  Click here to download your copy.

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Many thanks to great design work from Ewa and to Rosa, Tess and Frankie for preparing the content. We hope you enjoy reading it and look forward to your comments.

Also congratulations to Ewa and her fiance, Dominic O’Neil, who were married on Friday 31st July in Poznan, Poland! We wish them a very happy future together and look forward to seeing them back in Sierra Leone after their honeymoon.

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

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Category: Tacugama | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: tacugama

We’re really excited to be able to present you with a short documentary film about Tacugama.  We hope that this will give you a better insight to the sanctuary, our day to day work, challenges and aspirations, especially if you have never had the opportunity to visit us in Sierra Leone.

Please share this link with all your family, friends and colleagues and help us to spread the word, thank you!

We’re very grateful to Paul Glynn, who filmed and produced this documentary as a gift for Tacugama after visiting us in December 2008.  Paul was also instrumental in the production of Lost Freetown, directed by Nazia Parvez, a documentary showing the environmental threats to Sierra Leone’s capital city.

We look forward to receiving your feedback.

(PS The chimp shown arriving at Tacugama is Jessica)

Tags: Chimpanzee, Freetown, Nazia Parvez, Paul Glynn, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

9 responses so far

Category: Gaura, Tacugama | Date: Jul 28 2009 | By: tacugama

Shortly after Tacugama started blogging through Wildlife Direct, Gaura arrived as a newly rescued, frail baby chimp; eighteen months later he is a strong, cheeky and loveable character. Sadly another seven young babies have arrived since then; Chippe being the most recent two weeks ago (another four older chimps have also come to us in the same time frame). As each of the babies has completed quarantine they have been gradually introduced to Gaura and his “gang” now includes Tombo, Mac, Bai Nyaa, Jessica and Bruno. Last week they were joined by Yoyema who has quickly settled in with her new playmates.

Yoyema checks out Tombo’s hammock for comfort!

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

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Category: Chimpanzee, Tacugama | Date: Jul 24 2009 | By: tacugama

Last week saw us receiving little Chippe from Moyamba district. Chippe is about 3-4 years old but small and stunted for his age. He was originally reported as being in captivity by the census team while they were in Moyamba but they were unable to retrieve him. It then took some time to make contact with his keeper but finally we were able to make arrangements for Chippe to come to Tacugama. He will be in quarantine for three months while Mama Posseh works her magic and builds him back to full strength. While we were able to get very limited information about Chippe we know that he was captive for at least four months and suspect that his mum may have been snared and killed. As we reported on one of our census blogs, Moyamba District suffers from human/chimp conflict due to huge loss of forest habitat to agricultural land.

Chippe on arrival
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Tags: Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

4 responses so far

Category: Tacugama | Date: Jul 08 2009 | By: tacugama

Ten days ago we received a call from a businessman living in Freetown saying he had two chimps at his home that he wanted to handover to Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. We arranged to go and see him to get a better understanding of the situation and found two female chimps around 6-7 years old being kept in terrible conditions.

Our first sight…

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Although we are not totally convinced about the story we got from their keeper, it appears that he acquired the chimps several years ago while on a hunting trip into the centre of Sierra Leone and had kept them ever since in the central section of this small outbuilding. When they were smaller they were given some occasional freedom to roam the compound but as they grew bigger and less controllable that freedom disappeared. They had clearly not left their confines for a long time from the pile of lorry wheel hubs stacked against the gate. Sadly there was a similar pile filling the floor of their prison. He claimed to be an animal lover but wanted to handover the chimps as they were costing him too much to take care of. It would have been difficult for any neighbours to detect the presence of the chimps as the walls of the compound were tall and a noisy generator seemed to be running constantly.

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

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Category: Census, Tacugama | Date: Jun 09 2009 | By: tacugama

Dr Terry Brncic reports back from her team’s most recent census visit to the Outamba Kilimi National Park (OKNP) in the north of Sierra Leone on behalf of Tacugama:

Outamba Kilimi National Park is currently the only national park in Sierra Leone. Located in the far north of Sierra Leone on the border with Guinea, it is divided into the larger Outamba section in the east and Kilimi section in the west of northern Bombali district. The terrain is relatively flat with low rolling hills and plateaus offering excellent views across the spectacular landscape.

Thin strips of darker riverine forest running through the woodland savanna, and some of the spectacular hills across OKNP
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Tags: Census, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Tacugama | Date: May 28 2009 | By: tacugama

We’re very proud to be able to announce that our supervisor, Willie Tucker, has been recognised as a Disney Conservation Hero for 2009.  The reward recognises Willie’s commitment to the conservation of chimpanzees through his dedicated work at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary.  Willie has worked here since the founding of the sanctuary and contributed in so many ways to its development and achievements.

To read PASA’s full press release on Willie’s award then please follow this link.

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From all of the team at Tacugama - congratulations Willie, your award is well deserved!

Tags: Chimpanzee, Disney Conservation Hero, PASA, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama

6 responses so far