Bala Amarasekaran has never felt that running his world-renowned sanctuary for orphaned chimpanzees in the West African ...

July 15, 2025The doors of West Africa's largest chimpanzee refuge have been closed to tourists for more than two months.:: ...

In the forests of Sierra Leone, Bala Amarasekaran has spent three decades building a sanctuary, and a life, around orphaned chimpanzees whom he calls family. What began with the rescue of a single ...

The eco-lodges and tree-covered footpaths of West Africa's largest chimpanzee refuge have been devoid of tourists for more ...

That one chimp soon became seven - and the sanctuary was born in 1995. Amarasekaran has managed Tacugama through Sierra Leone’s brutal civil wars and heart-stopping Ebola outbreaks.

Bala Amarasekaran has never felt like running his world-renowned sanctuary for orphaned chimpanzees in Sierra Leone was truly ...

The eco-lodges and tree-covered footpaths of West Africa's largest chimpanzee refuge have been devoid of tourists for more ...

Authorities acknowledge that the country's rich wildlife is threatened by land seizures and illegal logging, but the founder of the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Bala Amarasekaran, says they have ...

Authorities acknowledge that the country's rich wildlife is threatened by land seizures and illegal logging, but the founder of the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Bala Amarasekaran, says they have ...

" (Deforestation) is really threatening the sanctuary's existence, because it's too dangerous when people come close to a wildlife preserve like this," said Amarasekaran, who founded the refuge 30 ...

Amarasekaran said President Julius Maada Bio's government had dispatched a task force to conduct some raids on illegal logging operations, but complained about a lack of follow-up operations.