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Animals: December 2008 Archives

Salva and Urgent Return to the Trees

Posted on December 9, 2008 | 0 Comments


Gorilla grooms Urgent

After a lifetime of bondage, a chimpanzee rescued and rehabilitated by the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone finally returned to the trees. To be the chimp that nature intended her to be. Urgent - for that is her name - was in the last days of November introduced to the forest enclosure at Tacugama where she can now climb trees with her fellow chimps.

Urgent-in-chains

Urgent was brought to Tacugama in July 2008 after spending all of 8-10 years chained to a tree. After months of rehabilitation, she is now ready to live in the forest enclosure and enjoy the closest experience to nature that Tacugama could avail. She was welcomed by Gorilla and Jetti with a guided tour of the enclosure.

Also taking the next step in his life in the last days of November was Salva. Salva had been brought to Tacugama with a tight wire digging into the flesh of her midsection. He was in a bad state and his survival was in doubt. He eventually recovered from the nasty woulds and even withstood a couple of bouts of flu to eventually complete his quarantine. In this next step of his rehabilitation, Salva joined Baba's group and his confidence is now growing. Not much can give away the trauma that he must have undergone during his time of squalid bondage.

Salva

The people at Tacugama are doing a great job rehabilitating this intelligent species of great apes. They have with them 89 rescued chimpanzees that would rather be roaming free in the wilds of Sierra Leone but due to human cruelty have to spend years in rehabilitation before they can go back to the wild - and hopefully survive human greed.

For Tacugama's 89 chimps, your donations matter a lot. They need every dime to take care of this large contingent of destitutes. Will you help?

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mapima-kimo.jpg

Mapima, the little baby chimpanzee that was rescued by rangers in Goma arrived at J.A.C.K in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the beginning of December 2008. Hers has been a long journey but in the company of Faustin, the expert in chimp baby care, it was good.

Mapima is very young. You can tell that she is less than 1 year old because she has no canines. In fact, she is the youngest and smallest chimp J.A.C.K (Jeunes Animaux Confisques au Katanga/Young animals confiscated in Katanga) has ever had to look after. Given her traumatic experience at such a tender age, and having to adjust to a new environment all over again, she was understandably aggressive at the mamas who take care of the other chimps. Luckily Faustin was there, and she knows him.

Faustin has a way with baby chimps; they easily get attached to him. In August, Faustin accompanied Tongo to J.A.C.K. It was therefore an emotional reunion when he paid a visit to his first ever chimp baby. They just sat there and stared at each other. You could see the bond will last forever. Tongo was rescued in the Virunga National Park area.

Faustin had to leave on 4 December and now the new baby Mapima will be under the care of Josephine and one more keeper. Mapima has befriended Kimo, another baby that arrived in November and therefore she is going to be fine. Tongo and Jane, another baby rescued this year, will be leaving the quarantine ares to go into the main enclosure: to ride with the big boys. Tongo will be the smallest baby in the enclosure so there is some anxiety. Shasa, one of the grown female chimps is expected to take care of young Tongo. She's quite motherly.

Visit the J.A.C.K blog often to get regular updates as to how Mapima, Kimo, Tongo and the other 19 chimp destitute are doing. The good people at J.A.C.K want you to know that it costs an average of $150 per chimp a month to pay for food, medical assistance, staff salaries among other expenses. Please donate here to help them.

About This Blog

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These notes from field conservationists bring the latest news from the remote jungles of Asia, the Virunga National Park and the Congo rainforest to increase awareness on the perils of the world’s great apes. Donate now and help WildlifeDirect and National Geographic support these critical projects and the people who are saving our closest living relatives.

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