Leaving the beach was tough, but we do take some comfort
in that we come back this way with the new group, so there will be another
opportunity to catch those rays one last time before leaving the country next
week. We are all hoping that we will
visit different beaches, rather than go back to ones that we have been to, but
as a backup plan I will not complain-it really is a beautiful part of the
country and in fact the world. The main
difference is their infrastructure is in its infancy, there are not massive
hotels (well one is just being completed down at the next beach), but there is
not ‘tourism’ as such. It is back to
basics, nothing flash and I think that makes a nice change to be somewhere for
the beauty and simplicity of the place.
I am sure in the coming years that will all change, but for now, the
Sierra Leone beaches are their little secret and now is the time to come and visit.
The road was 1000% better than what we came in on a few
days ago from the south, but it was still super bumpy and made up of the red
clay that seems to be the natural soil of the area. What
did notice was that it was also an area that was rich in rock and what
seemed granite. There were big machines
that were carving into the mountain sides and retrieving the rock and then it
would be broken up into small, manageable rocks and then they were broken down
further by locals that sat on a mound of the cracked rock and with a hammer and
a chisel breaking those granite rocks into gravel and then selling the piles,
cheaply and infrequently, to construction companies for use in cement. It is such an archaic way of doing the work,
and it is tough work, but over the hour there would have been over 100 people
ping, ping, pinging the rocks and the jarring that they must get up there arms
must catch up with them eventually, but I guess they are happy they have jobs, it
has to be one of man's most difficult labors in their attempt to survive. The life of a rock breaker is as hard as it
sounds. Men with shovels remove soil to expose large granite boulders, some the
size of small cars. They heat the boulders with wood fires or burning tires to
make them easier to split into chunks with chisels and sledgehammers. Once the
rubble is small enough to lug downhill, and then the breakers take over using mallets
and small sledgehammers to crush the rock into pebbles, and also ball-peen
hammers. There seemed to be an outcry of
child labor for this job, but in the morning that we drove through, I don’t
think I saw a single child, which is great news as nobody is a fan of child
exploitation.
At 10.45am we made into the outskirts of Freetown into
the biggest town we have seen in over a week, Lumley. It was busy, people going about their daily
tasks as we breezed through on Madge.
From Lumley we started the ascent of one of the many hills that surround
the capital of Sierra Leone with the final destination of the Tacugama
Chimpanzee Sanctuary. We passed a lot of
construction and a lot of road works which gives me faith that the city is on
the move. There was one thing that we
could see before getting to the Chimp place and it was literally on the
way. It was the St Charles Church situated
at Regent Village. St Charles Church is the oldest stone church in Sierra Leone
and the third oldest in Africa. It was built by Rev. W.A.B. Johnson a few years
after Sierra Leone became a Crown Colony.
Governor Charles M’Carthy who played such a notable part in the
settlement of the freed slaves in the Colony villages was very interested and
gave material help to Rev. W.A.B. Johnson, in the building of the church. The
church was built in the old Kings Yard in Regent, there being one in each
village. This was the place where, immediately on arrival, the Liberated
Africans were set free and maintained by the Liberated African Department until
they could be settled. There is also a small portion of the King’s Yard wall
still standing at Regent. St. Charles,
named after the Canonized benefactor of the Liberated Africans, Charles
MacCarthy, has the distinction of being the first stone church to be built in
West Africa, and it was consequently likened to the premier church in Anglican
Britain. With the help of some soldiers of the Royal African Corp, the
Liberated Africans of Regent enthusiastically provided labor for the
construction of the edifice under the supervision of a European builder. Constructed with red stones, perched on top
of a steep hill, this church was planned to accommodate about five hundred
worshippers, but in about three years after its construction it proved too
small for the rapidly expanding population of Regent. Some members have fondly and proudly referred
to as the “Canterbury of West Africa”. As a relic, it tells both the story of
missionary enterprise in Sierra Leone and illustrates the church architecture
of the 19th century. It was located on a
very steep driveway that we didn’t even attempt to take Madge up and when we
got to the top it didn’t hold too much charm from the outside as it was
refurbished 10 years ago after the civil war, but after waiting a few minutes,
and meeting some of the very young pupils from a primary school that came over
to say hello, Sam managed to track down the care taker and we were able to have
a peep inside.
After a look around, Sam buying some fresh bread from
what were the local ladies that looked like they were the tuck-shop ladies,
under the shade of the trees and bread in their baskets, we were back on the
road, which was heavily under construction with a lot of the red mud and potted
holes, we had to take care that we didn’t get stuck. We came to a small fork in the road and we
could see the sign for the Chimps, but it looked a little ambiguous on which
way it was pointing, so with a quick phone call to the Sanctuary to check which
way, and looking at the narrow road asking if a truck would fit up there, it
was a hearty yes, so a little apprehensive we started the 1km climb up a single
dirt track that hugged the outside of the mountain. And when I say a single lane track, there was
at times, not much room for Madge to squeeze through the trees that overhung
the ‘track’ and we all had to move away from the windows as we would have been
injured by the branches, not sticks that we had to push past to stay in the
middle of the track. If Zoe tried to
avoid them, we would have gone over the edge, seriously. As it worked out it took us just under an
hour to travel the tricky 1km, and with a little damage done to Madge with one
of the branches bending something near the door and a few more scratches added
to her duco, we made it to the bottom of a very steep driveway. Sam decided to not take Madge up it, which I
think was wise, as when we had to climb it after lunch, I was lucky to make it
and not because of my fitness (well maybe a little) but because of the
gradient. It was SO STEEP. Even if Sam was going to drive up it, I still
would have walked it anyway, as I would have been petrified.
So with a truck lunch, the Everest climb, we finally made
it to the gates and reception of the Chimp Sanctuary. We are actually lucky, as I did want to come
here to see the chimps, but we have even gone a step further and are going to
stay in the sanctuary for the night. Pretty
cool huh. Sam did enquire about us
camping up here for the night and after a dramatic pause from the owner Bala,
it was a flat no, purely because if the chimps escaped then we would be in a
lot of danger and I believe he said we would be torn to strips. Um, yeah-lets fork out a bit more money for
the accommodation tonight. As it was
both Ellie and I were excited and tredipious at the same time as we have both
just read the book Chasing the Devil and he outlined an incident that happened
here in 7 years ago. On 23 April 2006,
Issa Kanu died like no man should. His death was a tragic accident, but it had
a root in rainforest politics.
Issa Kanu died because chimpanzees escaped from the sanctuary. The chimps were in the sanctuary because
people had killed their parents and captured the youngsters to sell as pets.
Poverty had propelled these people to hunt chimpanzees and widespread logging
made it harder for the chimps to hide. This is the true story of how a legendary
chimpanzee called Bruno was orphaned by hunters, lived among humans, survived
encounters with soldiers during Sierra Leone’s civil war and then disappeared
on a day of deep tragedy. The story
begins back in 1989. Accountant Bala
Amarasekaran and his wife Sharmila were in a small village 150 kilometers north
of the capital Freetown when they saw a young male chimpanzee for sale. It
looked sick so they paid US$30 to rescue the animal and raised it in their
home. They named it Bruno. Before long
they acquired a second chimpanzee they called Julie. But as the apes grew
bigger and stronger it became clear that they could not stay in a human home
much longer. Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost chimpanzee expert, agreed. She
met Bala, Sharmila, Bruno and Julie in the early 1990s and sowed in Bala’s mind
the ideas of a sanctuary for Sierra Leone’s orphan chimpanzees. In 1995 the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry provided land in the Western Area
Forest Reserve and funded staff to support Bala as he set up
the Tacugama Chimpanzee
Sanctuary there. Within two years the center was home to 24
chimpanzees. Bruno was their boss. He was a giant among chimpanzees, around
20-30 percent heavier than an average adult male. Life in the sanctuary
improved for the chimpanzees and how they even survived the dangers of the
civil war, which ended in 2002. Bombs fell nearby and soldiers twice raided the
center for supplies. Some even threatened to shoot the chimpanzees, but Bruno’s
fame helped protect them. Tragedy struck instead on 23 April 2006, when 31
chimpanzees escaped.
For taxi driver Issa Kanu and four other men it was a day
of horror. Kanu’s passengers that day were local man Melvin Mammah and three
Americans — Alan Robertson, Gary Brown and Richie Goodie — who were
sub-contractors working at the site of the new US embassy about three kilometers
away. The men had come to visit the sanctuary but as they drove along a
forested back road, they came straight into contact with the escaped apes. Bruno charged. Then he smashed one of the
car’s windows, attacked Melvin Mammah and bit off three of his fingers. In the
chaos of the moment, the five men fled on foot. Four escaped but the driver,
Issa Kanu, ran towards a group of chimpanzees, which attacked and killed him
before they melted into the forest. When
the chimpanzees at Tacugama escaped and found themselves in unfamiliar
territory, approached by a strange human, they panicked. The visitors who arrived were simply in the
wrong place at the wrong time. Of the
chimpanzees that escaped, 27 soon returned but Bruno was among the four that
did not. Prospects look gloomy for the
wild chimps of Sierra Leone. In the early 1970s an estimated 20,000 of them lived
there. Today there are only around 5,000. More than 100 are in the sanctuary at
Tacugama.
And Bruno?
“I think he is alive,” Bala says. The sanctuary set camera traps in the Western
Area Forest Reserve and the photos seem to show Bruno in the company of wild
chimpanzees. “If he has integrated himself into a group of wild chimps, there
is very little chance of him knocking on our doors. Besides seven years is a
long time for him to make up his mind to come home.”
Maybe that’s the point. Maybe for Bruno ‘home’ now means
a world without walls.
So the breakout was 7 years ago and tragically someone
lost their life to a Chimp. Bruno is
still out there and I think the whole story just added to the mystery of the
overnight stay….and he could be out there….somewhere…….
We arrived earlier than what we had initially planned and
the rooms weren’t quite ready. There was
a little mix up with our booking and with the lodge full for the night we were
offered a discount on the rooms so we were now spread into a lodge, a guest
house and one person in the volunteer research accommodations. The lodge was the pick of the 3 options,
purely because you had a small bungalow to yourself (so I was out of the
running for that all together), the guest house was a triple, so a couple would
have to share with me, Zoe was in the research house and Sam was going to sleep
in the truck for security as it has been known for undesirable people to break-in
to cars and trucks. A coin was tossed
for the lodge, which Ellie and Rich won and the rooms allocated
accordingly. The guesthouse was actually
pretty cool as it also had a kitchenette, I had a sofa looking bed that had
been made up and Ian and Suzanne had the bedroom. So by the time the rooms became ready, it was
a few minutes before 4pm and it was time for the afternoon tour to begin. They only run the tours twice a day, 10am and
4pm, to minimize the chimps contact with humans.
Tacugama was established in 1995 to enforce the law and
rehabilitate confiscated, orphaned and abandoned chimpanzees with the aim to
release back them into their natural habitat. Although it is illegal to hunt,
capture, kill trade or own chimpanzees in Sierra Leone, sadly such
practices still continue. The sanctuary now cares for over 100 chimpanzees
in several forested enclosures. We are focused on the protection and
conservation of chimpanzees and their habitat through education programs,
community sensitization and legal enforcement.
The sanctuary covers 100 acres of the 17,688 hectare reserve. Chimpanzees are listed as Endangered by the International Union
for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). This means that they
face a very high risk of becoming extinct in the wild. Sierra Leone is home to
the Western Chimpanzee subspecies and holds the second highest population after
Guinea. Tacugama provides a unique
opportunity for visitors to see chimpanzees at close range in forested
enclosures during the two daily tours. There
are many amazing stories emerging from Tacugama, the legend of Bruno was born
here. Pinkie -
the only albino chimpanzee ever recorded was brought to the sanctuary as a
six-week old baby. Over the years, they
have been involved in educating the community about chimpanzees which has
led them into various Community
Development, Community
Outreach, Field
Research and Education
Programs. Field research is also an important part of our
work and 2010 saw us complete the most comprehensive census of
chimpanzees ever conducted in Sierra Leone.
Our primary objective is to enforce the wildlife laws of Sierra Leone
and provide a safe and natural haven for rescued chimpanzees with the ultimate
aim that in the future they can be released back into the wild.
We were welcomed by Moses, and it was hard to hear him
speak over the sound of the cicadas that were making their ‘cicada’ noises,
really it was LOUD. Over the next 90
minutes we were shown the different sections of the sanctuary and given in
depth explanations about the chimps and the programme. Most chimps that arrive at the
sanctuary are less than five years old and would normally still be
suckling milk from their mothers. Many are mistreated by their
owners, injured, malnourished or disabled; they have been abandoned or
illegally sold as pets. In most cases the mothers, and sometimes the
family, have been hunted as part of the illegal bushmeat trade or as a result
of human-wildlife conflict and their young have been sold as pets by the
poachers (research from the Jane Goodall Institute identified that between
5 - 10 chimpanzees die for every surviving rescued chimpanzee). Due
to their small size, the young chimpanzees are worth more alive than as
bushmeat. All of the chimpanzees arriving at Tacugama have suffered some kind
of mental trauma as a result of the violent separation from their families and
many come with physical injuries such as wounds from shotgun pellets or
machetes.
Once a chimpanzee reaches Tacugama it passes through
several rehabilitation stages and this is what we were shown.
QUARANTINE
Chimps share 98.6% of their DNA with humans and are very
susceptible to many human sicknesses such as the common cold, polio and TB.
New arrivals have often spent extended periods of time in close contact
with people and may have been infected. They undergo an initial health
check and then spend a minimum of three months in our quarantine area as some
illnesses cannot be detected immediately.
It's important that we not only nurse our new arrivals back to full
health but also that we protect our resident chimpanzees from the risk of
infection. During their time in quarantine the chimps are closely
monitored and undergo monthly detailed examinations as well as being inoculated.
A specially trained member of the care staff acts as
a surrogate mother for these young chimps, she carries, plays, comforts
and help feeds them. Her role is critical in alleviating the mental trauma and
stress of our young chimps. They also
ensure that our chimps are eating a more natural and healthy diet at this
stage. Often before their rescue the chimps are fed the same as their
captors; the staple diet in Sierra Leone is rice with sauces such as cassava or
potato leaves. Some come having been fed beer and given
cigarettes. Young chimps in the wild would learn what to eat and how
to eat from their mother and their family but few of our chimps have had this
chance. We start to teach them what they can eat and provide them with
substitute milk.
Once the vet gives the release from quarantine, it's time
for our arrivals to make some new friends!
INTRODUCTION
Chimpanzees are born into family groups that can range
significantly in size from around 15 to over 100 members. As the chimps
at Tacugama are not related to each other we have to take time to allow new
arrivals to form bonds and become a member of one of our existing groups.
Generally the younger the chimp, the easier it is to integrate. The
surrogate mother introduces the chimps in the quarantine area with each other
to form small groups of 3-4 baby chimps. This is where they first start forming
friendships and start behaving like chimps again by playing together. As well as a surrogate mother, they introduce
the chimps to an electric fence so that they do not try to touch them when they
are in the enclosure. The electric fences in the enclosures are of a high
voltage to completely discourage the chimps to attempt an escape. Once our chimps have been successfully
through the quarantine area, the role of the surrogate mother decreases and we
gradually introduce the chimps to peer-groups, where the chimps within the
group take over the care and comfort function for the new arrivals. The introduction is done by placing the new
chimp behind metal bars in one of the enclosures. Different members of the
group then investigate the new chimp. After several days, if the group accept
the new chimp we then let the new chimp into the enclosure and closely monitor
the behavior of the family for days. Each
chimp is introduced to a group depending on its size and age. Chimps are very
territorial and do not always welcome new members and hence the newly
introduced chimps are closely monitored to ensure they are not bullied or
picked on by their peers in their new group.
If they observe that one particular chimp is having a tough time in the
group or is disrupting the harmony, then they try to change them into a
different group.
We did pass an enclosure of adult Chimps and the second
they saw us they went off their tree (excuse the pun) and I have to say their
calls and hoots were ear shattering.
They weren’t happy noises as they are normally in the reserve, but
because the electric fence was getting repaired, they had to stay in the
enclosures all day-and they were not happy.
Anyone have warning bells ringing here?
Unhappy chimps, wanting to get out?
It made me nervous and it wasn’t great to see them looking at us, their
hands through the bars looking at us taking photos of them. I wonder if they mind? I guess if they did they could go deeper into
the cage so we couldn’t see them. They
are just as curious about us as we are about them. But I am looking at them differently now
after reading about the Bruno incident, but they are a product of the war; they
freaked and did what wild animals do. We
ventured up to platform that gave us a view over the reserve where there are
currently 40 chimps ready for release, but at the moment there is nowhere for
the chimps to be released that doesn’t have an existing family. If they were to introduce a family into a
current territory, that family will kill all the new comers. This is the problem facing the sanctuary at
the moment and it is not close to resolving at this point. While on the platform we did see 2 members,
but they kept to themselves and we didn’t really get a good look. But form here we doubled back past the
enclosure of the mad chimps, and they went off again and we were asked to not
stop and just keep walking so as to not exasperate the issue more and then we
climbed some more steps to the second floor of a building that gave us a view
of another part of the reserve and a different family and on the other side was
the playground for the teenage chimps.
There would have been 25-30 chimps, and as soon as a few saw us they
demanded attention and we were warned that they will throw stones at us, which
3 of the chimps proceeded to do and one guy was a terrible shot, but the other
2 had a pretty good aim and even though they missed us, they came pretty close
to a good shot!!! We were given around
15 minutes to take all the photos we wanted and then they were getting a little
antsy with us, so we were shown into an information room, which was well done
with information on the families, the Bruno story which they seem very open
about talking about and all the stats and figure on the chimps in Sierra
Leone. By the time we did a lap of the
small information room, it was the end of the tour and time to head back to our
accommodations.
Because we had the kitchenette in our room and to save us
all walking down and BACK up the Everest driveway and the possibility of rain,
we checked that the gas cooker worked and Zoe and Sam bought up the couscous
and ingredients needed for dinner and Zoe happily cooked us dinner and it was
nice to have a ‘family’ night as our last night before the influx of the new
comers tomorrow. A game of Scrabble was
retrieved from the truck (thanks Ian and Ellie for heading out after dark) and
a game of Scrabble ensued while I started to write my blog, but as there were
so many distractions, it was just not going to happen, so I decided while I
still had power to upload all my photos to my computer, as it has been a while
since I have backed them all up, so it was a great night and with Ian washing
all the dishes, Sam winning the game and everyone a little tipsy from drinking
the 7.2% Elephant beers that had been purchased from the reception before they
had closed at 6pm. I was still a little
paranoid about the chimps. Hat about if
they escaped? I asked Ian what our game
plan would be if they did and we decided that we would stay put in the
guesthouse which I was happy with that and it is funny that besides the lock on
the door as per normal there were also 2 internal bolts that could be slid
across if required. The chimps made some
crazy noises, which we could hear from where we were, but then they settled in
for the night and as I listened in the dark after the lights had gone out, I couldn’t
have been too worried as I am sure that it didn’t take me long to get to
sleep!!!!
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