Chimp Change: How Sierra Leone's National Animal is Reshaping Conservation

Mar 26
4 min read

Sierra Leone is losing its forests. An estimated 35% of the country’s forest cover has disappeared since 2000. As the forests shrink, so do Sierra Leone’s chimpanzee habitats and the chimpanzees. Sarah Kingdom tells the story after a visit to Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone.

The facts

Chimpanzees share 98.6% of human DNA

20 000: the number of western chimpanzees in Sierra Leone in the 1970s

5 500: The number of chimpanzees left in Sierra Leone by 2008

Critically Endangered: The conservation status of chimpanzees according to The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species

Threats: Agriculture, logging, development, hunting for bushmeat and the illegal pet trade

Inland from Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown, the Western Area Peninsula National Park, is a narrow chain of hills that occupies the heart of the Freetown peninsula. The area has pristine rainforest, mountainous terrain, idyllic waterfalls, a biodiversity hotspot, and the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. But the park is under threat. This once almost 18 000-hectare National Park is a fast-shrinking wedge of forest, hemmed in by the country’s capital. Once gone, it will be impossible to get back. Satellite imagery shows that the national park has lost a quarter of its forest cover since 2016. As the forest disappears, the number of orphaned chimps at Tacugama grows.

It all started in 1988, with Bala and Sharmila Amarasekaran driving through the Sierra Leonean countryside. About 250km from Freetown, they passed through a village where they saw an emaciated, orphaned chimpanzee, tied to a tree as a pet. “From the moment the chimp gazed up at us and hugged us, my wife and I were moved. We knew if we left this little guy behind, he would die,” Bala said. They paid $20 for him. This one-off mercy mission soon happened again. One rescued chimp became seven, all housed in a makeshift shelter in the garden of their Freetown home. In dire need of space, Bala and Sharmila began campaigning to set up a reserve within the Western Area Peninsula National Park. Seven years later, in 1995, they finally received permission, and the 40-hectare Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary was born.

As news of the sanctuary spread, so did reports of more captive chimps in Freetown. Owners voluntarily surrendered chimps, while authorities confiscated others under the Wildlife Conservation Act. By 1997, 24 chimps called the sanctuary home. Some bear the physical scars of bush snares and mistreatment, with missing hands or scars from deep lacerations. Others have mental scars from growing up without mothers or display a deep mistrust of humans. Tacugama is a haven for these chimpanzees, giving them a second chance.

Along the way, Bala became something of a legend in Sierra Leone. He managed Tacugama through the country’s brutal 11-year civil war, military coups, and the Ebola and COVID outbreaks, pushing chimps into the national consciousness and lobbying for these primates to become the official national animal. In 2019, after world-renowned primatologist, Jane Goodall visited the sanctuary; the chimpanzee finally became Sierra Leone’s national animal and the new face of tourism. It was a celebratory moment for Tacugama. “This is great for us,” says Aram Kazandjian, Tacugama’s development manager. “The government now prioritises chimp protection. Being the national animal means it is prohibited to kill, sell, eat or keep them at home.” But as Bala says, this is not the end of the battle. “It took us 25 years to get them declared the national animal.”

The nursery currently holds 40 infants. One of the most recent rescues arrived with gunshot wounds to the head and chest, most likely hit by stray bullets aimed at his mother. “We’re taking in rescues at an alarming rate, despite our efforts. In 2022, we rescued 10, all babies,” says Aram. Since 1995, Tacugama has rescued and rehabilitated approximately 200 West African chimpanzees. “Scientists have proven that every time you have a chimp landing in a sanctuary, 8–10 will have died in the wild. So, if you look at the 119 chimps here currently, they probably represent 1 000 that have died,” Bala says.

In addition to providing lifelong care for its residents, Tacugama’s work is changing and expanding. Beyond housing, feeding and rehabilitating orphaned chimpanzees, Tacugama supports ecotourism and other projects in rural areas-projects designed to help protect wild chimpanzees. Getting local communities to buy into chimpanzee protection takes patience and an understanding.

The Tacugama Community Outreach Program (TCOP) targets communities living near chimpanzee populations. Their goal is to achieve sustainable management of natural resources, promote the cultivation of alternative non-vulnerable crops and sensitise people about the need to coexist with chimpanzees. TCOP supports these communities by providing alternative livelihood initiatives, including fruit and tree planting, livestock farming, and rice production. The goal of these alternative initiatives is to eliminate the dependency on bushmeat hunting and deforestation and to provide communities with sustainable income sources.

In recognition of Tacugama’s successes, the Sierra Leonean government asked them to help manage two additional National Parks in the country–adding Outamba Kilimi and Loma Mountains national parks to their portfolio. So far, they have planted 80 000 trees in Moyamba in the south of the country. This connected five patches of fragmented forest, creating the country’s first wildlife corridor and helping to restore the natural habitat for wild chimps. They planted an additional 70 000 trees in Loma Mountains National Park for the same reason, with 90 000 cashew, coffee and cocoa being grown in the buffer areas. These cash crops will provide alternative incomes for the local communities. They will also plant 90 000 trees in Outamba Kilimi National Park this year.

Part shelter, part educational facility, and part tourist attraction, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary attracts visitors from across the world. The staff offers twice-daily sanctuary tours. Tacugama also has an eco-lodge.

This article appeared in the second issue of ThisWildEarth. If you loved this article, explore more content from our latest publication.