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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 children.

The country's chimps face many threats, including the erosion of their habitat as land is reclaimed for farming, being traded as pets and circus animals, and being hunted as a source of bush meat.

It is due to these threats that the population of wild chimps in Sierra Leone is estimated to have fallen from 20000 animals 30 years ago, to around 4000 today.

Bala campaigns to save the chimps, and his Tacugama sanctuary houses up to 100, who have been sick, abandoned by their owners, or are otherwise under threat.

Bala Amarasekaran spoke to Matthew Bannister and explained how his interest in chimps began. He described how he was working as an accountant in 1993 when he took a trip up country and spotted a chimp chained up to a tree.