(ANSA) - ROME, JULY 14 - In Sierra Leone due to the restrictions due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the 96 chimps of the Tacugama Chimpanzees Sanctuary have been in lockdown for 4 months together with the 35 staff operators: now the structure, which has saved them from poaching in the forest, from illegal detention and commerce, with the blocking of ecotourism circuits and the absence of public funds, it risks not surviving. To sound the alarm, on the occasion of the World Chimpanzee Day, is the Parco Natura Viva in Bussolengo, where the most popular colony of these primates lives in Italy, which also invites to participate in the public fundraising active on the site of the sanctuary (www.justgiving. com / campaign / tacugamalockdownjuly).
Without visitors to support the $ 10,000 a month, it is necessary to keep the facility just outside Freetown - reads - Celia, Marion, Pieh and the other specimens risk not having a home anymore. Endangered according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (Iunc), there are four subspecies with the smallest population in existence. "The long rehabilitation of these specimens - explains Cesare Avesani Zaborra, scientific director of Parco Natura Viva -, a gigantic education work with the local communities and the scientific research carried out directly in the forest now risk stopping forever" and "precisely at a critical moment for the balance of coexistence between animal men ". In fact, for some decades - notes the note -, West Africa has accelerated exponentially the growth of its human population, with pressure on the forests caused by intensive agriculture, infrastructure and urban agglomerations. The conflict with wildlife is getting worse and faster and at these rates, the species that shares 98% of the genetic heritage with humans risks disappearing from the planet. In Europe, the specimens housed in the zoological parks are 1,081 and here too - he concludes - the economic difficulties that the pandemic has left are a common factor in the structures that are still facing very difficult moments. (HANDLE).
Sierra Leone, 96 chimpanzees in lockdown for 4 months
2020-07-15T17:32:06.928Z
(HANDLE)(ANSA) - ROME, JULY 14 - In Sierra Leone due to the restrictions due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the 96 chimps of the Tacugama Chimpanzees Sanctuary have been in lockdown for 4 months together with the 35 staff operators: now the structure, which has saved them from poaching in the forest, from illegal detention and commerce, with the blocking of ecotourism circuits and the absence of public fund...