Tacugama

Thanks a lot to all for your support. We have raised over $3000 so far. Many of you have sent appeals to friends and family and the word is spreading. As soon as we get to 50% of our target, we will order the materials needed to build the enclosures.

We really believe we can do this together and your support will be recognized. We will hang a board with the names of each person and organization once the enclosures are built.

Meanwhile work continues at Tacugama. Tompey is doing very well. Last week, Dr. Fiona, a pediatrician volunteering at a local children hospital, came to assist Dr. Rosa at Tacugama. She brought a portable ultrasound machine to check out Tompey.

Since her arrival, Tompey had two big lumps in her belly that we could not determine their nature. Dr. Fiona was very enthusiastic in helping the chimps and suggested to use an ultrasound scan. This is something hard to come by in Sierra Leone. Thankfully, the bumps turned out to be nothing to worry about. Dr. Fiona also managed to scan her chest to locate the bullet fragment. It seems it is imbedded in the heart wall. It is amazing that she survived!

Tompey behaved very well and did allow us to check on her without a struggle. After the scan, she had another dose of bracelet grooming.

…… with updated news on our national census, photos from our November events in Barcelona + London and lots more about our recent activity.

Click here to download your copy now!

Tompey with Mama Posseh on her way to hospital

Following her initial checks on arrival at Tacugama we suspected all was not well with Tompey, our recently arrived 100th resident chimp.  Dr Rosa decided an x-ray would help to assess her condition. The x-ray plate revealed a bullet lodged in her chest!  On close inspection, we found the entry scar of the bullet on her back between her left shoulder blade and spine. One centimetre more to the right, the bullet would have hit her spine and probably been fatal. You can see the bullet below.

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One more chimp was rescued two days ago bringing the total number of residents at Tacugama to 100! A tiny girl, she is hardly 1 year old and arrived dehydrated, weak, with deep scars under her neck and hips caused by ropes cutting through the poor girl’s flesh…. I have seen those “helpless”, “all lost” eyes so many times before!

An employee of the Sierra Rutile mines in the south east of Sierra Leone felt sorry for the baby and had bought her from a hunter. The little girl is called “Tompey”. Fortunately we were called straight away by the man so that she could be brought to Tacugama and taken care of.

Tompey arrives in the late evening at Tacugama

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Warning: some of the pictures shown below may be disturbing.

As part of our routine health care of the chimpanzees at Tacugama, we recently gave Gorilla (yes that’s really his name -you can read more about him on one of our earlier blogs here) a booster vaccination. After a few days, Gorilla’s leg showed signs of stiffness and discomfort and his leg started to swell. We became increasingly concerned when Gorilla didn’t respond to follow up treatment and decided that we had to knock him down to investigate more closely. As sweet natured and friendly as Gorilla is, he is still an adult male chimpanzee weighing over 50kg and sedation is the only way that we can do a thorough check.

Carrying a sedated Gorilla to the operating table
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In two earlier blogs we gave you questions answered by Willie and Moses, two staff members at Tacugama who have been here for many many years.Please read below for their final answers!

What positive effects do you think TCS has on the local community?
Moses: Tacugama has some major positive effects, such as protecting the water catchment areas – the Congo Dam and Tacugama Dam are both close to the sanctuary, and protecting the forest from unauthorized settlers.
Willie: The greatest positive effect is the provision of employment facilities offered by TCS to the local communities living near Tacugama. Around 60-70% of the staff are from the local community. Bringing tourists to Tacugama allows local villages to sell more of their produce, some of which is also purchased by the sanctuary for the chimpanzees.

Moses organises fruits from the local market
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Happy New Year to all of you from all of us at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. We hope that you have enjoyed the holiday season. As all of our chimpanzee family need the same care every day, our routine stays very similar no matter the day of the year but we’ve enjoyed meeting the extra visitors that the holidays bring to the sanctuary.

2010 is an important year for Tacugama, September marks its 15th year of operation: enforcing the law protecting chimpanzees, educating and sensitising people of all ages about the environment and conservation, working with local communities to help them develop, as well as taking care of the rescued chimps who live at the sanctuary. We will also complete the Sierra Leone National Chimpanzee Census project in the early part of this year. This important work is providing some excellent data and information that, as well as confirming the numbers and distribution of chimpanzees in the country, will assist us in developing and delivering conservation action plans for wild populations and their habitats. Increasing our outreach activity is essential to stemming the flow of chimps captured in the wild and the destruction of vital habitat areas.

We thought that you might like these photographs of Philip and Tito and how they changed since they first came to Tacugama. Philip was one of the “founding” eight chimps that came to Tacugama when it first opened in 1995 after being kept as a pet in Freetown. Tito was rescued from a member of the armed forces in the early years of the sanctuary and had to go through cold turkey as he was very used to smoking and drinking beer. He’s not as strong and developed as the other adult males as a result of his poor early diet.

A young Philip……
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Just before Christmas we said our fond farewells to Stephanie Brown who’s done a great job in supporting our local education co-ordinator to run and develop the Tacugama Kids Environmental Education Programme.  Stephanie came to Tacugama as a volunteer from the UK in September and has used her experience in education, biology and the environment to help deliver our programme across our partner junior secondary schools in the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve.  She’s now gone back to the UK to continue her career in teaching and we’d like to give her big thanks and wish her all the best.

Stephanie with some younger pupils at FAWE school
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We hope you’ve all been enjoying the holiday season, sorry for our belated greetings but our best laid of plans to send you our festive cheer were delayed with the arrival of yet another new chimp at Tacugama, Benita is her name and she’s somewhere close to 3 years old.

Dr Rosa was busy with the one month health checks for Samson and Delila, who arrived with us in November, when a call came in from IMATT (the International Military Advisory & Training Team) who have become good supporters to Tacugama. While on his way out of the base, Major Chris Allewell spotted someone holding a chimp on the side of the road, stopped to check out the situation and ensured that the chimp made it safely to the sanctuary.

Major Allewell with Benita and her owner, Fatmata
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Hi this is Tess, giving you an update on all the youngsters.

Firstly Samson and Delilah have settled in very well to their new home. Samson is the more playful of the two, but also the one who cries the most, seeking lots of attention! Delilah is more laid back in her new surroundings and is more curious about things going on around her.

Basma is doing incredibly well, and is now beginning to eat proper food! Babes is being a great mother, and at feeding time shares her food with both her children, Basma and Bintu.

Basma has her eye on her mother’s food (as does one of the older chimps!)
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