As soon as lined in verdant, dense jungle, in the present day Sierra Leone’s forests are dwindling. Per International Forest Watch, over 35% of the nation’s forest cowl has vanished since 2000, and over 400 sq. kilometers has been clear minimize within the final yr alone. Just like the forests of its neighbors in West and Central Africa, Sierra Leone’s forests are shrinking, and with them the populations of endemic animals that decision these forests house, together with chimpanzees, our closest evolutionary relations.
Within the Nineteen Seventies, there have been round 20,000 critically endangered western chimpanzees in Sierra Leone. By 2008 solely 5,500 have been left. Some have been pushed out of their pure habitats to make method for agriculture, logging and the event of roads and different infrastructure.
Others fell sufferer to hunters or have been trafficked as unlawful pets. Human inhabitants in Sierra Leone has almost doubled because the flip of the century (from 4.5 million in 2000 as much as almost 9 million in 2023). This has gone hand in hand with the rise in each the bushmeat commerce and the pet commerce. Chimpanzees are costly items of meat on the black market, and infants which can be too small to eat are sometimes saved and offered as pets, each to locals and in overseas markets.
Within the midst of this gloom, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary has change into a lifeline for these threatened animals, and is working laborious to avoid wasting each chimpanzees and their pure habitat.
Inland from the capital metropolis Freetown, the Western Space Peninsula Nationwide Park is a slim chain of hills (37 km lengthy, 14 km huge), occupying the guts of the Freetown peninsula. The Pristine rainforest, mountainous terrain, and idyllic waterfalls characterize the panorama. This biodiversity hotspot is house to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary.
Regardless of its magnificence and significance although, the park, like forests elsewhere within the nation, is beneath menace. As soon as virtually 180 sq. kilometers, satellite tv for pc imagery evaluation exhibits that Western Space Peninsula has misplaced 1 / 4 of its forest since 2016, and because the forest shrinks, the variety of orphaned chimps at Tacugama expands.
The Beginning of a Chimp Haven
Let’s rewind 36 years. It’s 1988, and Bala and Sharmila Amarasekaran are driving via the Sierra Leonean countryside, round 250 kilometers from Freetown. Passing via a village, they see an emaciated orphaned chimpanzee, tied to a tree and being saved as a pet.
They really feel they haven’t any alternative. “From that first second of the chimp gazing up at us and hugging us, my spouse and I have been actually moved,” Bala mentioned. “We knew if we left this little man behind, he would die.”
They paid $20 for the chimpanzee, and named him Bruno. What began as a one off mercy mission quickly expanded. One chimp quickly turned seven, all housed in a makeshift shelter within the backyard of the Amarasekaran’s Freetown house. In dire want of house, the couple campaigned for six years to be allowed to arrange a reserve throughout the Western Space Peninsula Nationwide Park.
In 1995 the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary was born.
As information of the sanctuary unfold, so did experiences of extra captive chimps in Freetown. Some have been surrendered to the sanctuary, whereas others have been confiscated beneath the provisions of the nation’s Wildlife Conservation Act (1972).
For the following two years, chimps continued to be rescued from determined conditions. By 1997, there have been two-dozen chimps on the sanctuary. Some bore the bodily scars of bush snares or mistreatment, with lacking palms or gnarled scars from deep lacerations—lasting reminders of their nightmarish pasts. Others had psychological scars from rising up with out moms, or displayed a deep distrust of people. Tacugama turned a haven for these chimpanzees, offering them with a second probability and a lifetime of peace and safety.
Alongside the best way, Bala Amarasekaran has change into considerably of a legend in Sierra Leone, managing Tacugama via the nation’s brutal 11-year civil conflict and subsequent navy coups, in addition to devastating outbreaks of ebola and (extra lately) COVID-19. All of the whereas, his work at Tacugama continued to push chimps into the nationwide consciousness. He additionally spent years lobbying for chimpanzees to change into the nation’s nationwide animal. It was lastly declared so in 2019, shortly after primatologist Jane Goodall visited the sanctuary.
It was a miraculous win for Tacugama. “That is nice for us,” mentioned Aram Kazandjian, Tacugama’s improvement supervisor. “The federal government prioritizes chimp safety. Being the nationwide animal, this implies it’s prohibited to kill, promote, eat and maintain [chimps] at house.”
“We’ve got an ethical obligation to guard chimpanzees,” Kazandjian continued. “They share 98.6% of our DNA.”
However it’s removed from the top of the battle. “It took us 25 years to get them declared the nationwide animal,” added Amarasekaran. “Now it’s about taking delight in that, and seeing how we will carry this legacy ahead and defend the species.”
Defending Chimps In the present day, Defending Chimps Tomorrow
In addition to offering lifelong look after its 119 chimpanzee residents—most, if not all, of whom are orphans and rescues from the illicit bushmeat and pet trades—Tacugama’s work continues to alter and increase.
Past housing, feeding and rehabilitating orphaned chimpanzees, Tacugama helps ecotourism and different initiatives in rural areas, efforts which can be designed to assist defend wild chimpanzees so that they don’t find yourself on the sanctuary within the first place.
Getting native communities to purchase into chimpanzee safety takes persistence and an understanding of the financial pressures they face. For people who find themselves struggling to feed their households and ship their youngsters to highschool, conservation usually appears a luxurious they’ll’t afford.
Regardless of Tacugama’s many successes, forest felling and bushmeat searching stay nice threats. A current arrival on the nursery—which presently has 39 infants—was discovered close to the park with gunshot wounds within the head and chest. He was doubtless hit by stray bullets aimed toward his mom. “We’re taking in rescues at an alarming price, regardless of all our efforts. In 2022, we rescued ten chimpanzees, and all are infants,” reported Kazandjian.
In whole, Tacugama has rescued and rehabilitated round 200 western chimpanzees since their inception three a long time in the past. Sadly, these rescued chimps are additionally an emblem of the devastation the species nonetheless faces. “Scientists have confirmed that each time you’ve got a chimp touchdown in a sanctuary, in all probability 8 to 10 may have died within the wild,” mentioned Amarasekaran. “For those who have a look at the 119 or so chimps right here now, they in all probability signify 1,000 that died.”
Tacugama has been so profitable at what they do this they’ve been requested by the Sierra Leonean authorities to collaborate and assist handle two extra nationwide parks, including Outamba-Kilimi Nationwide Park and Loma Mountains Nationwide Park to their portfolio.
To this point, as a part of their chimpanzee outreach and collaboration endeavors, 80,000 bushes have been planted in Moyamba, within the south of the nation. These new bushes have helped to attach 5 patches of fragmented forest, creating the nation’s first wildlife hall and restoring the pure habitat for wild chimps.
A further 70,000 bushes have been planted in a degraded space of Loma Mountains, with 90,000 money crops (cashew, espresso and cocoa) being planted within the buffer areas of the park this yr to offer revenue for the native communities. 2024 may also see 90,000 bushes being planted in Outamba-Kilimi.
Half shelter, half instructional facility, and half vacationer attraction, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary attracts guests from internationally. A 30-minute drive from Freetown, the passionate and dedicated employees supply twice-daily excursions of the sanctuary, throughout which guests can observe the work of the nursery or get a glimpse of older chimps within the sanctuary’s bigger forested enclosures. Tacugama additionally has a number of eco-lodges, the place guests can spend the night time.
The growing nation of Sierra Leone has a protracted record of pressing wants, in fact, and caring for younger chimpanzees isn’t at all times seen as a precedence. However these remarkably clever primates are our closest residing relative, sharing almost 99% of our DNA. They will study human signal language, use instruments, and have unbelievable problem-solving skills.
Whereas the percentages have appeared overwhelming at instances, for almost 30 years the small, dedicated workforce at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary has been advocating for our chimpanzee cousins. In a becoming serendipity, an image of Bala and Sharmila’s first rescue chimp, Bruno, is now on Sierra Leone’s nationwide passport.
CREDIT: Renato Granieri
