In the early 1970s an estimated 20,000 of them lived there. Prospects look gloomy for the wild chimps of Sierra Leone. Chimpanzees need more than a sanctuary, they need to be protected in the wild, along with the forest they live in.” “But once again Bruno was showing us the way.
“I was heartbroken,” writes Bala Amarasekaran in the Afterword to King Bruno. Of the chimpanzees that escaped, 27 soon returned but Bruno was among the four that did not. “He was a famous and loved animal,” he said. Ishmael Kindama Dumbuya, environmental reporter at the Standard Times Newspaper told me that Bruno’s escape captured the imagination of people across Sierra Leone, despite his role in the loss of a man’s life. In the story I’ve taken Bruno’s point of view and done my best to present the incident this way: as a tragic accident.” “The visitors who arrived were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. “When the chimpanzees at Tacugama escaped and found themselves in unfamiliar territory, approached by a strange human, they panicked,” Glynn told me by email when I asked how he handled such a tragic event in a children’s story. Four escaped but the driver, Issa Kanu, ran towards a group of chimpanzees, which attacked and killed him before they melted into the forest. In the chaos of the moment, the five men fled on foot. Then he smashed one of the car’s windows, attacked Melvin Mammah and bit off three of his fingers.
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.īruno charged. 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 kilometres away.
GIANT CHIMPANZEE DRIVER
Tragedy struck instead on 23 April 2006, when 31 chimpanzees escaped.įor taxi driver Issa Kanu and four other men it was a day of horror. Some even threatened to shoot the chimpanzees, but Bruno’s fame helped protect them. Bombs fell nearby and soldiers twice raided the centre for supplies. King Bruno describes how life in the sanctuary improved for the chimpanzees and how they even survived the dangers of the civil war, which ended in 2002. He was a giant among chimpanzees, around 20-30 percent heavier than an average adult male. Within two years the centre was home to 24 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. 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. Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost chimpanzee expert, agreed. But as the apes grew bigger and stronger it became clear that they could not stay in a human home much longer. They named it Bruno.īefore long they acquired a second chimpanzee they called Julie. It looked sick so they paid US$30 to rescue the animal and raised it in their home.
Accountant Bala Amarasekaran and his wife Sharmila were in a small village 150 kilometres north of the capital Freetown when they saw a young male chimpanzee for sale. It tells 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.
That’s exactly what author and illustrator Paul Glynn has done with his book King Bruno, which he will launch in London on 6 February. Poverty had propelled these people to hunt chimpanzees and widespread logging made it harder for the chimps to hide. The chimps needed that sanctuary because people had killed their parents and captured the youngsters to sell as pets. Issa Kanu died because chimpanzees escaped from a sanctuary in Sierra Leone. His death was a tragic accident, but it had a root in rainforest politics. On 23 April 2006, Issa Kanu died like no man should.
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