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 ...

The sanctuary's keepers have defiantly kept it closed since late May as a protest to spur the government into action over the ...

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.

Established by Bala Amarasekaran in 1995, Tacugama now cares for over 100 chimpanzees under the work of nearly 30 staffs in several forested enclosures. (Xinhua/Lin Xiaowei) ...

Bala Amarasekaran is often torn between his human family and what he calls his "hairy family". That is because Bala runs a sanctuary for chimpanzees in Sierra Leone and regards the chimps as his ...

"They took medicines that could not be replaced and sadly that led to the death of three of our chimps that needed medical attention," said Bala Amarasekaran, the director of the sanctuary hidden ...

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

“Chimps are so much like us, we need to care for them” says Bala Amarasekaran, the founder of Tacugama. He has become something of a legend in Sierra Leone.