It\u2019s an unlikely scenario\u2026 but it is the exact situation I found myself in at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary – a tranquil forest retreat in the Western Area Peninsula National Park, just thirty minutes outside of Freetown.<\/p>\n
I felt a bit like Jane Goodall\u2026 an icon in conservation who, believe it or not, has visited the sanctuary a few times\u2026 so it was at the top of our \u201cmust see in our minimal free time\u201d list.<\/p>\n
A visit to Tacugama won\u2019t be the \u201cup close and personal\u201d wild animal experience you might be anticipating, (unless you\u2019re Jane Goodall)\u2026 but, if it were, it wouldn\u2019t truly be a sanctuary with the chimps\u2019 best interest at heart.<\/p>\n
Tacugama History
\nTacugama was established in 1995 in cooperation with the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n
Despite being founded in the midst of a civil war, and literally being caught in the middle of a clash between opposition forces in 1997, Tacugama endured and has continued to fight for conservation and the protection of chimpanzees.<\/p>\n
In the year 2000, the first large fenced enclosures were built, and, for the next five years, steady expansion lead to new chimp enclosures and even staff quarters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You\u2019re swinging in a hammock\u2026 in a treehouse\u2026 in the middle of a forest in Sierra Leone. The only thing you hear is the wind rustling through the leaves of the trees, the buzz of insects, chirps of birds\u2026 and the occasional hoots of chimpanzees in the distance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":23346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33],"tags":[7,14,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-23349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-travel","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-travel"},"yoast_head":"\n