On the afternoon of 24th October we were delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal to Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary as part of her historic royal visit to Sierra Leone. Her Royal Highness, accompanied by her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, was in Freetown to mark the 50th anniversary of independence and recalling the visit of Her Majesty the Queen back in 1961. More information about the Royal visit is available on the British High Commission website.
Her Royal Highness is well known for her passion for horses and she also has a keen interest in wildlife and conservation. Amongst the many organisations that she supports as part of her extremely busy schedule she is Patron of both the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and The Whitley Fund for Nature. Her visit to Tacugama was a great opportunity for us to demonstrate the important conservation role that sanctuaries in Africa are undertaking.
Here are some photographs of her visit to the sanctuary - thanks go to the British High Commission for sharing many of these:
Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal is welcomed to Tacugama
Princess Anne and Bala Amarasekaran, founder of Tacugama
Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence learning more about Tacugama's work from Bala
Princess Anne is introduced to six-month old Perry, Tacugama's youngest orphan
Princess Anne meets Perry and Posseh
Princess Anne and Bala at the end of the tour
We were very honoured to be able to introduce Her Royal Highness and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence to Tacugama’s work and the team – the tour was filled with lively discussion and in-depth questions which demonstrated the couple’s deep-rooted concern for conservation and the environment. It was a day to remember for all of us.
We hope you enjoy the pictures, we’ll be back with more news of Tacugama soon!
