National Geographic Society

The population of Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone grew to 100 last month with the arrival of Tompey, a year-old female chimpanzee rescued from a hunter in the southeast part of the country. While Tompey now has the chance to be rehabilitated, her arrival increases the strain on the sanctuary, which needs additional funds in order to ensure the welfare of its primate residents.

Tompey came to Tacugama in poor condition, suffering from dehydration and wounds around her necks and hips caused by ropes. An X-ray revealed a bullet lodged in her chest, which, according to Tacugama Founder Bala Amarasek, suggests Tompey's mother was killed. Hunting chimpanzees is illegal in Sierra Leon but the practice continues despite education and law enforcement efforts. Chimps are hunted for bush meat or captured to be sold as pets or research animals. Often, in order to successfully capture a baby chimp, it is necessary to kill its mother and other adults defending it.

Tacugama, which has been rehabilitating orphaned chimps since 1995, will look after Tompey's health and help her to adjust to life at the sanctuary. Due to its ever growing population of confiscated chimps, Tacugama urgently needs to build extra facilities. In a blog posted on WildlifeDirect, Bala Amarasek painted a stark picture of the situation:

"Another chimp at Tacugama to be cared for many years! This time around it is even harder for me. For the first time in 15 years of Tacugama I have had to make up my mind to say NO to the next desperate chimp that needs to be rescued.

We just cannot continue like this without securing the resources to build the infrastructure and much needed running costs to cater for all these chimps. We have already begun to compromise the welfare of those who are already under our care. We must take a step back...

...for the time being, and as a matter of urgency, we need everyone's help to find the resources ($100,000) to build new enclosures and holding facilities to ease the overcrowding at the sanctuary. Without this we cannot continue to accept more chimps and undertake our law enforcement role.

You can help the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary by making a donation online.

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 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.

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?