What can a Bonobo Ape teach us

Editor's Note: The annual TED Conference (Feb. 26-Mar. 4) is an invitation-only affair known as the place where high-tech tycoons, Nobel laureates, and other very smart people gather to share ideas that will inspire. The TED Fellows program was established to give people who wouldn't ordinarily have the opportunity—or the means—a chance to present their remarkable work to an audience that just might include Bill Gates and Al Gore. In a series leading up to TED, Businessweek.com will feature interviews conducted via e-mail with a handful of this year's fellows.
Isabel Behncke Izquierdo

Primatologist

Oxford University

Isabel Behncke Izquierdo is a Chilean primatologist who studies the bonobos in a remote jungle region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Very little is known about the bonobo, which along with the chimpanzee is the closest living evolutionary relative to humans. Behncke Izquierdo, 34, who studied animal behavior and evolutionary anthropology at Cambridge and Oxford, hopes that a better understanding of the bonobo will provide new insights into human evolution and a better understanding of how we come to experience such things as joy, creativity, and our capacity for wonder.

What can humans learn from the bonobo?

Much! Three main aspects: playfulness, social tolerance, and female bonding.

We have an extraordinary opportunity to learn from bonobos, more about our own evolutionary past on one hand, and on the other the incredible diversity of social organization in animals. Bonobos are our evolutionary cousins, that is, we share a common ancestor with them who lived approximately 6 million years ago. Since all the modern human ancestors are extinct, bonobos and chimpanzees are our living closest relatives, the best window we have into our past.

Most of the narratives around human evolution have been informed by what we know from chimpanzees, not from bonobos—since we know relatively little about them and most studies come from captivity, not from the wild. Chimpanzees are well-known for being toolmakers, hunters, patriarchal, aggressive, political, and strongly hierarchical. Bonobos on the other hand are female-dominated, much more socially tolerant, with lessened and more flexible hierarchies, playful throughout their lives, peaceful both within and between groups.

It then follows that if we were to learn only from chimpanzees, our ideas of our past would be heavily skewed; we would be missing essential and wonderful aspects of what makes us human.

Are bonobos the swingers of the chimpanzee world? Are they as sexually liberated as the literature suggests?

Short answer is yes—bonobos are highly sexual creatures. Their use of sex is multidimensional: It is seen in contexts as varied as highly tense situations around food competition, bonding, play, and so on. A primatologist once said that "chimpanzees resolve sexual issues with power; bonobos resolve power issues with sex."

In addition to variety in context, partner combination is also incredibly varied: There is adult male/adult female sex, of course, but in addition there is female-female, male-male, and also adult-infant sex. Much of adult-adult sex happens in stress-related situations (such as just before and during feeding), and a lot of infant sex seems to have elements of playful exploration (such as a game of chase in which a young female held a male literally by the balls as he laughed). But these are generalizations—bonobos' sexual behavior always surprises.

If you could take a few bonobo behaviors and somehow make them part of human nature, what would they be?

What a fun thought experiment. I would have to choose grooming, inter-group tolerance, and sex. Aspects of these of course, since we already do them, yet not in the same way as bonobos do.

First, grooming because those long sessions of tactile social contact must feel wonderful—the only simile for us these days is paying for massage! Second, female bonding, and social tolerance in general: Formation of strong alliances between females seems to make for a more peaceful, tolerant, and less strongly hierarchical society. Last but not the very least, to bring in at least part of the sexual exuberance that bonobos have would certainly keep humans both very fit and happy! Just kidding, I don't want to think about the complications that would cause!

How do you observe bonobos? Do you live with them? Do they come to know you or recognize you?

I study a group of wild bonobos that have been habituated to human observation by Japanese scientists and local Congolese trackers since the mid-'70s. The research station is a house made of mud and bricks in the village of Wamba (at the very heart of the Congo basin), which lies at the center of the study group's range. I get up at 3:30 a.m. and walk through the jungle with the trackers to get to the bonobos' sleeping site before they get up and start traveling (usually around 6 a.m.). We then follow them thorough their daily activities. They travel and split in smaller parties, looking for food. Usually at mid-morning, there will be a long "social session," where the adults groom and the juveniles play. When they make their nests (beds) again in the evening, I record the place in my GPS and we then walk back to camp, shower, eat, and prepare for the next day of bonobo observations.

I think they do know me and recognize my voice and face, since for example when they hear the voices of villagers foraging in the forest they get startled in a way that does not happen with my voice (and those of the people they know). Bonobos are highly intelligent and curious animals, and there are a few bold individuals that have come to observe me at closer quarters sometimes.

Did your parents encourage you to have lots of pets? Is that what sparked your interest in becoming a primatologist?

Having lots of pets is an understatement. My dad had anything from eagles-in-rehabilitation roaming inside the house to a South American rhea running outside. So no lack of animal diversity there! Also, I was very lucky that we spent the long summer holidays at a sheep ranch where horses, dogs, and the local wildlife made for all the fun a child could possibly want. But exposure to animals is not all that made me a primatologist, since the multitude of books my mom encouraged me to read left an intellectual curiosity which has been a key driver all the way.

Did you really have a pet parrot as a child that you used to sneak on airplanes?

I was 8 years old when I was given this untamed, angry parrot by my father. I had the whole summer and total determination, so I succeeded in befriending him so that nothing would separate us for the following 15 years. During my late teens and early 20s I was frequently flying within Chile, and so to get onto planes I would regularly hide my parrot inside my sweater. To be honest, I think stewardesses knew about it but turned a blind eye. The proof came once when there was a disabled girl who had a panic attack, and since nothing seemed to calm her, they came to get me to see whether showing her the parrot would work. My little parrot did a great laughter impression and so it worked. We were then invited to visit the captain's cockpit, but the adventure finished not quite on a high since the parrot decided to poo all over the flying instruments. Unforgettable.
Story Credit Here

Lola ya Bonobo reached their goal and a new facility can be built!!!! YEAH

All of us at Lola, both humans and bonobos want to thank you all for your donations and adoptions over the past two months. We reached our goal…by the 1st of February we reached our target amount of 50 000$ for the new nursery & quarantine facility for Lola!!!

A big thank you to Jim Holtz who gave a special donation, but just as big a thank you to the many of you who have, through big and small donations helped us to achieve this!!!

It is just wonderful to know that we have so much support out there!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Our little orphaned babies and new arrivals will soon have a new facility just for them!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Story Credit, photos and to donate here

Is There a Dark Side Of Bonobos?

“The behavior of bonobos, unfortunately, is much less well known than that of chimps, and further study might reveal a darker side to their natures.” – Paul Ehrlich (19)

Compared to gorillas and chimpanzees, bonobos have some physical proportions that suggest movement toward the human. For example, their skulls are smaller to overall body size.(20) Do bonobos likewise have behavioral traits that suggest movement away from the more ‘barbarian’ ape toward the more ‘civilized’ human? While a number of people have described the bonobo as a relatively egalitarian ape (an early form of the liberal democrat?), many recognize some of the factors, rather than an innate goodness, that contribute to the behavioral differences we describe as more egalitarian.

Frans de Waal, in Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are, says this about the bonobo: “They are better described as tolerant than egalitarian.”(21) In his book about the roots of human egalitarian behavior, USC biological anthropologist Christopher Boehm recognizes that the strength of female coalitions ‘puts a lid on’ the heirarchical strivings of male bonobos.(22) Lacking the strong female coalitions, how would the males behave?

Besides the above question, and pertinent to it, is it possible that our limited understanding of bonobos has misled us? In Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect, Ehrlich noted,

“Although bonobos are not as well studied as chimpanzees, we do known that there are also many aggressive interactions among males of that species. Individuals hit, bite, slap, shove, grab, and otherwise abuse one another and use a variety of bluffing and charging displays. Aggression by a dominant male is countered with various submissive reactions by lower-ranking males, including appeasing the aggressor by permitting him to mount.” (23)

Hmm. Maybe bonobos aren’t all that different from chimpanzees. Has the positive been accentuated to a degree that distorts? Besides all the seemingly friendly sex and lack of a preeminent male dominance structure, bonobo males do threaten one another by glaring and gesturing, as they also make submissive signs via hand-extension and prostrations. (24)

Perhaps the observed behavioral differences between chimpanzees and bonobos is not so much about their innate nature as it is about differing environments. Maybe both the chimp and the bonobo are somewhat like Swiss Army knives (less so than humans, of course), and their evident “nature” will change along with local conditions. Two naturally manipulated variables that confront the bonobo, and likely shape its behavior, are likely key to their relatively placid demeanor.

In bonobos, female ovulation is more concealed. (Is this an environmental factor? For the males it is.) Does this fact play a role in an equalizing of the power dynamics between the sexes? Is this one of the reasons why a bonobo alpha female is apparently as dominant as the alpha male? It very well could be. For, as Freud speculated in his theorizing about the centrality of libido to human behavior — for without procreation and the desire for it, this is no human — sex is extremely important to animals. With concealed ovulation comes lesser opportunity and incentive for males to fight over, guard, and “possess” females as a resource when they are visibly fertile.

Yet even with sex relatively crossed out of the equation, bonobos do display hierarchical behaviors. In fact, bonobos display more fighting and dominance behaviors than chimps around food.(25)

Besides reproduction, what resources do primates fight over? Food might be the second most important resource and something worth battling for. Robert Wrangham speculates that a key environmental difference for the bonobo — one that has shaped their behavior in the short and long terms — is the absence of gorillas in bonobo forests. This absence may have made foraging for foliage foods easier and less dangerous. Is this, too, partly responsible for the seeming diminished aggressiveness of male bonobos? But what of the “more fighting” around food mentioned above? Are in-group skirmishes something distinct from out-group aggressiveness?

Wrangham writes, “The idea that selection for reduced male aggressiveness produces bonobo-like features is supported by data on domesticated mammals.”(26) The bonobo male: more puppy-like than the chimpanzee?

Aha! What are humans but upright apes that retain many juvenile characteristics? (It’s called neotony.) Good question. There is one thing I think we can be fairly confident about, however. Neither the chimpanzee nor the bonobo provides a perfect glimpse into our behavioral past.

—

(19) Ehrlich, P. R., Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect, Island Press, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 210
(20) Wrangham, R. & Pilbeam, D., “African Apes As Time Machines,” in Galdikas, B. M. F., Briggs, N. E., Sheeran, L.K., Shapiro, G. L. & Goodall, J. (Eds.), All Apes Great and Small, Volume I: African Apes, Kluwer Academic / Plenum, New York, 2001, p.13
(21) de Waal, F. Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are, New York, Riverhead Books, 2005, p. 84
(22) Boehm, C., Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999, p.30
(23) Ehrlich, P. R., 2000, p. 206
(24) King, Barabara, The Dynamic Dance: Nonvocal Communication in African Great Apes, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004, p.163
(25) Boehm, C., Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999
(26) Wrangham, R. & Pilbeam, D., 2001, p.12

Source

Lola Ya Bonobo Gets A New Fence Thanks To Jim Holtz

Our physicist friend, Jim Holtz, made a very generous donation this year which enabled us to build a brand new fence for group 3! we desperately needed it, since some of the bonobos were escaping and causing havoc, but as you can see from the pictures - no escape artist is going to make it out now!

I’m including ALL the photos, because even though once upon a time i might have thought fences were boring, when you have 12 little trouble makers, including Boyoma, to keep contained, I think this fence is the most beautiful creation I’ve ever seen!

Thank you Jim, for helping us!

Source and to donate

The Bushmeat Trade

In the 1970s: Bushmeat Trade Manipulates Pygmy Economy and the Fate of the Forest.

In the 21st century the pygmy net-hunt has become a major source of bushmeat leaking out of the Okapi Reserve in Congo’s northeast Ituri Forest. The Mbuti pygmies are ineluctably depleting the Reserve’s animal resources, their only resources, by hunting deeper and deeper into the forest. Outside traders pack their wares deep into forest hunting camps, to come out as quickly as possible with loads of antelope carcasses they will sell at a phenomenal mark-up to the expanding markets both in the village of Epulu and in distant towns.

Is this new? Perhaps new in the Okapi Reserve, but John reported a similar commercialization of the net-hunt between 1973 and 1976 in the southern Ituri Forest. Fresh out of college, John spent two and a half years living with three different bands of Mbuti Pygmies. Later, 1979, he wrote up his observations as a Master’s Thesis.

John’s passport picture, 1970s, from the period he studied Mbuti hunting economy in the southern Ituri Forest.

Why did John do this? :

Like many college undergraduates in the early ‘70s he was charmed by Colin Turnbull’s romantic anthropology “The Forest People” (Simon and Schuster, 1962). The image was appealing: the Mbuti pygmies living in material simplicity whose daily security was guaranteed by intimate familiarity with a generous forest home. What was glaringly absent from Turnbull’s depiction of Mbuti life was any biological or economic analysis.

John was granted a Watson fellowship – 6,000 USD – to learn the economic-ecology of Mbuti culture in the Ituri Forest. He made the grant last two and a half years, covering his food, clothes and all his transportation. His largest purchase was a one-speed bicycle for occasional trips to larger towns. His second largest purchase was a kerosene lantern, so he could write notes late into the tropical darkness.

His methods:

John lived alone in the camps of three different Mbuti bands, each of which hunted different, but contiguous stretches of forest. He maintained continuous residence in the camps for periods of three to five weeks with only brief village breaks in between. His research tools were a tape recorder, a camera and hand-held spring-scales for weighing the fresh catch on net hunts and for weighing any garden food the Mbuti received in trade for bushmeat.

John spoke Kingwana, a version of Swahili used throughout eastern Congo and used by Mbuti as well, although he also learned to understand the more localized languages of Kibira and Kipakombe.

The question John started with:

1. Was it really possible for the forest to support an Mbuti culture living in isolation from agricultural villages ? This was Turnbull’s ideal.

A question John added once in the Ituri :

2. How able was the forest to support the high bushmeat demand coming from towns in the east? Meat-traders was an emerging reality.

At the Kugongea or the opening fire at the start of the net-hunt where all the men, women and children gather who will take part in the hunt. Photo from John’s 1970s collection.

John found a traditional interdependence between Mbuti and forest bantu.

In the southeastern Ituri forest John found bantu populations for whom the forest is ancestral home. Among these groups, the Bira and Pakombe have been associated with pygmy populations for many generations, for as far back as their oral histories reach.

There are family level relationships between individual Bantu farmers and individual Mbuti hunters. These bantu, known as bakbala (mkbala = singular), provide their Mbuti “partner” with agricultural starches (cassava, plantains, yams) from their gardens. Mbuti provide their bakbala with wild meat from the forest. The bakbala are also the source of tools and clothing for the Mbuti who, for their part, diversify forest products for the bakbala including mushrooms, fish, and honey. They also provide intermittent day labor for the village gardens.

Mbuti woman with mushrooms she has brought to our house (1980s).

John’s description of this pygmy- bakbala traditional relationship:

1/ Reciprocity is not necessarily immediate. John recorded periods where a mkbala provided his Mbuti with starch on many successive days with no meat in return. This was possible as the relationship was long-standing with confidence on both sides that each would support the other. The Mbuti would eventually provide forest products. The relationship was personal, and based not only on the needs of the other but also based on current availability. When there was meat, the mkbala would be recompensed.

2/ Relationship is one on one. A mkbala has a relationship with a particular Mbuti who then shares garden starch acquired with other members of his enlarged family and band. Likewise, a mkbala receives meat from “his” Mbuti which he will, in turn, share with his immediate relatives and neighbors.

John made a couple other noteworthy discoveries about the kbala relationship:

• The net hunt, the spear, and all iron tools had their origin with the Bantu. Before interacting with Bantu, the Mbuti must have hunted with poison tip arrows and smoked animals out of holes. There would not have been the possibility for large meat surpluses. (this was more than five centuries ago)

• Although there are Bantu ethnic groups living in the forest without relationships with Mbuti; there were no Mbuti living as forest hunters without bakbala relationships. The forest does not provide adequate starch. Wild yams and Mbau nuts are the biggest wild sources of starch, but yams are not abundant and have a very limited distribution whereas Mbau nuts are available only briefly with unpredictable seasonality.

• Historically Mbuti have provided other services for bakbala. In the 19th and early 20th century they hunted elephants when the bakbala were being pressured by Arab merchants and later by Belgian colonists for this commodity. Even earlier the Mbuti were the guerilla warriors essential in the wars between different ethnic groups.

John also found a new commercialization of the net-hunt:

From 1973 to 1975 meat traders became an increasingly prominent part of the Mbuti economy in the southeastern Ituri. These traders from distant towns packed full loads of merchandise directly into hunting camps where they replaced them as quickly as possible with full loads of smoked bushmeat they packed back to the markets. The merchandise they brought was most frequently rice or cassava flour, sometimes liquour, sometimes trinkets.

One of the three bands of pygmies traded almost exclusively with meat traders or bachuuzi. They also hunted the most distant forest

Women wearing traditional Kange “paint”, flowers and twigs along with a trinket available from bachuuzi.

John’s description of the bachuuzi (trader)-pygmy relationship:

1/ The bachuuzi went to the most distant, animal rich camps. They traded exclusively for immediate return and left with their meat as soon as they ran out of trade items. Smoked meat begins to lose market value after a couple weeks so rapid trade was important.

2/Relationships with traders were ephemeral. There was no reciprocity, no willingness to make a loan. The bachuuzi’s goal was immediate profit and return on loans was far too uncertain to be practical.

John made a couple associated observations about the commercialized net hunt:

• Meat trade is exploitative. The value of the meat relative to the value of the starch decreased according to Bachuuzi trading standards. Several spot checks John made in the big markets around the forest showed that meat was running at five to ten times the amount paid by bachuuzi in the forest.

The “prices” meat traders would pay for bushmeat was far inferior (1/3) what the bakbala would give for the same amount. The Mbuti “allowed” this exploitation for the convenience of having the agricultural food brought directly to their hunting camp.

• The commercial net hunt is depleting wild game resources. Over the study period there was decreasing hunting success and the Mbuti had to hunt longer hours and extend their hunting area into ever more remote forest, forest that would have previously been a refuge for animals.

For his two original questions , John found the following answers:

1/ The Mbuti do not live independently in the Ituri Forest . Agricultural starch is an important and regular part of their diet. It is indeed unlikely that Mbuti live exclusively as hunter-gatherers anywhere in the Congo as we have since found that the Ituri was among the richer forests.

2/ Sustainable net-hunting cannot fulfill the bushmeat demands of surrounding towns. The Mbuti with commercial traders are continuously moving into more remote unhunted forest.

Indeed the pattern in the southeastern forest of thirty-five years ago is very like the situation today in the Okapi Reserve. What would be interesting would be to know what has happened to the descendents of these three bands of Mbuti today. We will try to get this information and post it sometime during the next six months.

Photo from John’s 1970s collection.

Source, Great Website, and to donate

Vanessa Woods New Book, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods is not only one of my dearest friends, she’s also an extremely gifted writer. Currently at Duke University, she studies the cognitive development of chimpanzees and bonobos at sanctuaries in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Next June, Vanessa’s latest book, Bonobo Handshake, will be published–and I can’t wait…

Bonobo Handshake

In 2005, Vanessa Woods accepted a marriage proposal from a man she barely knew and agreed to join him on a research trip to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Settling in at a bonobo sanctuary in Congo’s capital, Vanessa and her fiancé entered the world of a rare ape with whom we share 98.7% of our DNA. Vanessa soon discovered that bonobos live in a peaceful society in which females are in charge, war is nonexistent, and sex is as common and friendly as a handshake.

A fascinating memoir of hope and adventure, Bonobo Handshake traces Vanessa’s self-discovery as she finds herself falling deeply in love with her husband, the apes, and her new surroundings. Courageous and extraordinary, Almost French meets The Poisonwood Bible in this true story of revelation and transformation in a fragile corner of Africa.

Source and Video

Sally Coxe Is Being Honored For Her Great Work With Congo's Bonobos

By Susan Kinzie

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 16, 2009

It wasn't long after Sally Coxe started learning about bonobos -- the chimpanzee-like primates that many scientists believe could be humans' closest evolutionary ancestors -- that she quit her job to try to save them.

Her family thought she was crazy. For years, with a brutal war raging around the bonobos' habitat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it was difficult to find people who worried about the apes as she did, or to raise money and travel there to help.

But somehow, Coxe and the small, offbeat nonprofit group she co-founded in a Woodley Park apartment have done some remarkable things. They forged alliances with villagers and Congolese leaders, and have implemented a grass-roots model for protecting endangered species.

Wednesday night in Copenhagen, the Bonobo Conservation Initiative will be honored by the Coalition of Rainforest Nations and conservation groups, along with people such as Jane Goodall, the internationally known primatologist. BCI will announce an experimental effort to protect the rainforest where bonobos live -- an area bigger than Belgium -- supported by the Congolese president and local partners, and financed, they hope, with carbon credits.

Negotiators in Copenhagen are working on a deal that would, in an effort to offset emissions, pay countries for protecting forests.

"Much in the way that Jane Goodall is the chimp lady and Dian Fossey the gorilla lady," said Robert Booth, former managing editor of National Geographic magazine, "I've always thought of Sally as the bonobo lady."

The tale of BCI is a love story. First Coxe fell for the bonobos. Then she met Michael Hurley. In 2002, after a particularly nasty bout with parasites, out of money and wondering how she was going to keep the nonprofit going, Coxe was introduced to Hurley by a friend. He was one of the few to really get the whole complicated, spiritual vision of the thing, she said. He came over and, essentially, never left.

In their living room, decorated with African drums and books, they finish one another's sentences. Coxe, a slight, beaming 50-year-old with long, sun-bleached hair, is the president of BCI. Hurley, leaning forward and talking fast in a Mexican woven hoodie, is the vice president and executive director. They have a second small apartment next door, the BCI office: three desks and a bed where visitors crash.

Hurley's longtime friend Bill Duggan, owner of the Adams Morgan bar where Coxe and Hurley often hold their business meetings, said, "Michael's your swashbuckling Irishman . . . sort of a throwback to the African explorer, charging ahead. And Sally's just an angel. She's so idealistic, she's blinded to the dangers because of her belief."

Coxe long ago exhausted all her savings. The couple sometimes have had to pay fieldworkers before they paid their own rent. They borrowed thousands of dollars recently to help airlift a Congolese employee hurt in a motorcycle accident to a hospital.

They've gotten so many parasites they joke about all the new species they've discovered. They've stumbled on armed soldiers in the forest.

"It is the heart of darkness," Duggan said. "It's not the kind of a place a university can send grad students -- it's too dangerous.

"Obviously they're crazy. But it's not like they can say, 'We want to save [the bonobos] in Atlanta.' "

Bonobos are nicknamed the "hippie apes" because some scientists say they love sex and don't fight like other species do.

"Chimps have a patriarchal, territorial society" and kill other chimps, Coxe said. She believes chimps and bonobos are sort of the yin and yang of human nature. Females bonobos seem to have more power, and there's more cooperation among them.

"It's this amazing ape that's matriarchal, bisexual, peaceful, has all these qualities that I felt humans should try to emulate," Coxe said. While working as a copy writer for National Geographic on a great apes book, "I had this epiphany. All my interests coalesced, I decided to quit my job and follow bonobos."

She volunteered with a professor "and immediately hit it off with them." Something about her body language, or her eye contact. "I was just in their groove," she said.

The bonobos seemed so intelligent and empathetic, she said. She remembers playing hide-and-seek that summer outside the lab with a little bonobo that reached for her hand as though she were the new friend in the neighborhood.

"We went down by the stream and were hiding on the bank," Coxe said. "She was holding me, looking at me. She was playing the game as much as I was."

She met with primatologists and with Congolese living in Washington to brainstorm ideas. She learned Lingala, one of the principal languages spoken in Congo. In 1997, she met a woman at the National Zoo who helped her form the nonprofit group, which now operates on an $800,000 annual budget.

What makes BCI different, said John Scherlis, who worked for years in East Africa linking conservation and development and advises BCI, is that its leaders didn't come in thinking they knew how to protect the animals; they asked local people how to do it. They drew on traditions, asking villagers to help design solutions.

After being told how important music was in spreading ideas there, they recruited Congolese pop stars to record songs about bonobos. With local conservation groups, BCI helped establish protected areas in which people live and work; fieldworkers are paid to help protect the animals from poachers. BCI helps fund projects that provide food and income for local people and paid for a medical clinic.

BCI tries to emulate bonobo society as Coxe understands it, working collaboratively and partnering with local Congolese groups.

"I have learned so much from bonobos," she said.

Source and Photographs

The Great Ape Trust Has To Move Apes. What a Tragedy!

These Apes, in the future, will have to live in smaller habitats then what they are use to, they no longer will be able to use their minds, though instead, be victims of starring, pointing and yelled out by the public. What a real shame for the knowledge that will be lost.

Story-

Des Moines' colony of orangutans will be shipped to a home in another state in 2013 because Blank Park Zoo officials declined to build a center for the Great Ape Trust of Iowa apes.

A zoo outside of Iowa will become the new home for six orangutans now living at the Des Moines research facility and five more now living at a California facility. Trust officials declined to name the zoo because negotiations are still under way.

The developments means the end of Great Ape Trust's original plan to have all four great ape species and an elaborate visitor center at the trust campus near Easter Lake, said spokesman Al Setka. Last year's campus flooding, which caused $1.2 million in damage, led to a virtual ban on construction at the site by federal agencies who are sorting out flood risks there.

“Great Ape Trust appreciates the efforts by Mark Vukovich and the Blank Park Zoo board of directors. We know this was a difficult decision for them,” said James Aipperspach, director of operations at Great Ape Trust. “It was always the hope of our founder Ted Townsend to keep the orangutans in his hometown, however, the welfare of these marvelous creatures must remain our highest priority.”

A group of bonobos and related research will remain at the Des Moines campus.

A facility for 11 orangutans would cost $12 million to $18 million.

The city of Des Moines recently raised the possibility of selling the zoo, which has been studying an expansion for years.
The Great Ape Website

Source

Dr. Thompson Speaks About Preserving The Bonobos

The Pickaway County Garden Club held a dinner meeting Sept. 8 at Henry Manor. Vice President Carol Bowling introduced Dr. Jo Thompson of Marion. Dr. Thompson is a graduate of Wittenberg University, holds a masters degree in anthropology from the University of Colorado and received her doctorate in anthropology and primatology from the University of Oxford in 1997. Dr. Thompson has dedicated her life to helping the bonobo, its environment and the local human inhabitants in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2006, she receive the Rolex Award for Enterprise which enabled her to continue her work. Dr. Thompson spoke about her conservation efforts and her ongoing work to preserve the bonobos.

Pat Knecht, president, welcomed members and guest, Joy Myers. President Bowling read the minutes in the absence of the secretary and Bonnie Koch, treasurer, gave her report. Bowling reported on the Salt Creek School project. Plans were made to work with the sixth grade to plant fall bulbs.

The next meeting will be Oct. 13 at the library. The program will be presented by the Master Gardeners.

Source

Searching For Bonobo in Congo

In early 2007 the first exploratory mission was launched up the

Lomami. One very large dug-out took off from Kisangani full of

barrels of fuel, bags of rice, bags of beans, packs of salt fish, cans

of sardines , a bottle or two of Johny Walker-red and a crew of men.

All of these men had had experience in animal inventories in Congo’s

forests, but none of them had worked here, in the center of the Congo.

The roadless, unexplored forest between the Tshuapa,

Lomami and Lualaba Rivers was clear on satellite images.

I was in the west, in Kinshasa covering on the administrative/

diplomatic aspects of the trip. John was in the east, finishing

up an animal inventory in the Ituri forest. Ashley, who had

earlier worked with John on surveys in the Salonga Forest

accepted the rather daunting task of leading the first mission

into a truly unknown forest.

Ashley on one of the first exploratory circuits.

Just a little damp.

In two months Ashley made it all the way to the first falls on

the Lomami River, nearly 1000 river km (620 miles) south

along the Lomami River. His teams had made survey circuits

into the forest on the east and west bank, often trekking with

only sardines, beans and fufu as rations for two weeks or more.

Setting camp at night.

The beans often were not adequately cooked until well

after camp was set.

By the second mission John was full time on the TL2 challenge

and I expanded diplomatic efforts to Kisangani.

In the dugout, John looks over results of a circuit with team

leader, Maurice.

The diplomacy became far more complicated than anticipated as

we were accused by some of being diamond prospectors and by

others of being mercenary/rebels. Why else would anyone

venture up the Lomami River?

Major Ranger was a Maimai rebel up the Lomami River with

whom we had to negotiate our terms of co-existance carefully.

He is center, Maga of TL2 on the right. He was an elephant

poacher and killer of bonobo, but finally jailed for large-scale rape.

By early in 2008 we had two field bases, one at Obenge and one at Katopa .

Our large dugout, docked in front of our camp Katopa at

the south end of the TL2 area on the Lomami River.

The original area slated for inventory covered 50,000 km²

(19,300 mi²). Our first estimation of important forest had

included all that seemed unbroken – virgin – on satellite

maps. On the ground, however, it rapidly became clear that

much of this forest was empty. Although there were no

settlements, the forest had been hunted to exhaustion,

all large mammals were gone including totally protected,

bonobo, okapi and forest elephant. Hunting camps and

signs of hunting were everywhere. Bushmeat merchants

were along every path and road hauling their wares to market.

The beginning of the bushmeat chain. Black mangabey
mother, baby and 12-gauge that killed them.

This baby black mangabey survived the killing of its
Mom to become a local pet until it dies.

Source and Finale

Bonobo Apes and Locals All Benefit

Bonobo. Photo by: Jeffry Oonk.

Lounging bonobo in Kokolopori reserve. Photo by: Jeffry Oonk.

A partnership between local villages and conservation groups, headed up by the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), has led to the creation of a new 1,847 square mile (4,875 square kilometer) reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The reserve will save some of the region’s last pristine forests: ensuring the survival of the embattled bonobo—the least-known of the world’s four great ape species—and protecting a wide variety of biodiversity from the Congo peacock to the dwarf crocodile. However, the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve is worth attention for another reason: every step of its creation—from biological surveys to reserve management—has been run by the local Congolese NGO and villages of Kokolopori.

I. ‘To me the first thing, it’s very simple, you give the local people the control’.
The establishment of nature reserves often leads to conflict with local people, sometimes lasting generations. Traditionally governments and conservation organizations delineate park boundaries so that they avoid all human populations, or in some cases even remove people from the parks. Local people—who may have enjoyed traditional rights in the parks for centuries—are suddenly told they can no longer hunt, fish, or collect resources in the park. Programs are often established to aid local people or repay them for their losses, but many of these prove less-than-adequate.

The situation in Kokolopori could not be more different. In partnership with BCI, locals have been involved in every decision regarding the new reserve. BCI, a ground-breaking conservation group, was also responsible for the establishment of Sankuru Reserve in the DRC. Larger than Massachusetts, Sankuru Nature Reserve made headlines in 2007 for its importance to conservation and its focus, like Kokolopori, on working with local communities. However Kokolopori has taken local community involvement to a new level.

“To me the first thing, it’s very simple, you give the local people the control,” Michael Hurley, executive director and vice president of BCI, told Mongabay.com. “Give them the education and teach them modern conservation science to facilitate their doing it, but also give them the resources so they can take control, and that’s often the step that’s missed. I’ve heard it said so often, ‘well, we want to work with that group there, but they really don’t have the capacity to do the kinds of things we need to do’. And my response is, ‘well, there’s the problem, focus on building their capacity as opposed to just imposing conservation programs’.”

One way in which BCI builds capacity is by crafting close partnerships with local NGOs, in this case Vie Sauvage.
“It is important to emphasize up front that BCI could not have accomplished this without the leadership of Albert Lokasola, a visionary leader, and President of Vie Sauvage, a locally based NGO,” says Hurley, “ An important aspect of BCI’s approach is to support, nurture, and facilitate local leaders, and commit to long-term partnerships.”

The people of Kokolopori have long known what it is like to be ignored by the outside world. Suffering through the decade-long Congo war, they have never known steady access to health care or education. In addition, the war disrupted their ability to sell agricultural crops—a livelihood they had depended on. It was in the midst of this situation that the people of Kokolopori decided to protect their forests as a reserve rather than exploit them for profit. Albert Lokasola, President of Vie Sauvage, approached BCI in 2001 seeking support with local conservation efforts. The Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve became not only welcome news for conservation efforts but humanitarian ones as well, since innovative programs have given the people of Kokolopori the chance of a better life.

During preliminary studies in the region it become increasingly clear that a nature reserve which did not directly benefit local people would not be viable or desirable to any party involved. So, BCI began to create its own version of forest reserves that incorporated local human communities. BCI sought partnerships not only with the local communities, but also with local NGOs, Vie Sauvage. During every step in the reserve’s creation BCI turned more-and-more to the strength and dedication of the Congolese.

“The most important thing is [the Congolese] need to understand that they are the ones who have control. And that can only be done by building up relationships over the years and by constant proofs to the partners that you really are giving them control. And when that’s done, a foundation is built for real sustainability,” Hurley says.

II. ‘People who live in the forest know the forest better’.

From the very beginning, BCI solidified their relationship with locals. The first thing an organization must do before proposing a protected area is to survey the region’s biodiversity.

Kokolopori Reserve lies south of the Congo River in DRC’s Cuvette Centrale, a region of lowland tropical forest and wetlands. The reserve was known to have bonobos, but the actual number remained a mystery. In addition other species in the reserve needed to be identified. But unlike most biological surveys, which are often conducted by foreign scientists, this survey was undertaken largely by the local Congolese.

“What we believe is that people who live in the forest know the forest better,” Hurley says. “If I were going to go to Montana to photograph elk, I’d hire a local guide. So, [the Congolese] generally can collect a lot more data, they really observe the forest and know it more, and if you combine that with the science and technical skills—which we provide the training for—then we get a lot more information.”

Through training programs, BCI educated locals in GPS, surveying technology, and line transects. The training remained useful even after the initial surveys were finished.

“Once [the locals] started working on surveys with us then we tried to keep funding them, so in a sense it’s their equipment, they’re doing the work, and they’re being paid for it. That money is being dispersed through the community as well,” Hurley says. “They continue to act as ambassadors for conservation, and then we…convert many of the survey team members into monitors.”

Once a bonobo site is discovered, monitors are assigned to the area to protect the bonobos from hunters. Currently there are 70 local monitors overseeing a number of bonobo sites.

III. ‘How do you tell these local people who are poor and starving they should not hunt A –B –and -C?’

To work with the local people effectively, BCI developed the Information Exchange program, which facilitates a dialogue between the local people and conservationists. The Information Exchange program has been vital for identifying the true needs of Congolese in the region. As an example of the importance of Information Exchange, Hurley points to a water well that was almost built.

“One of our folks was in the village and the women were carrying water…it was about 3 ½ hours of work starting at sunrise: trekking down to a river area, collecting water, and bringing back all these heavy, heavy containers of water on their head to the village. The idea was…we should look at getting investment to build a well in the village. Now traditionally, what might be done is a socio-economic study: take a look around, look at what the needs are, and then develop a project and go in and build that well. But in this process what we found was the women said…‘oh, wait a minute that’s the only time we all get together away from the village and get to talk about our husbands’—and they bring their kids and the kids play in the water and everyone washes and the women share stories…it’s their time away, and they said ‘you know that really would not be good for us’. It’s that kind of sharing, that kind of knowledge asopposed to imposing things that we think are best for them.”

Hurley believes the Information Exchange program could help conservationists around the world to learn how to really communicate with local peoples about their needs. According to Hurley, many conservationists “go in and do biodiversity studies and then do socio-economic studies and then they talk about stakeholder engagements, but what it usually ends up being is they hold some meetings and tell local people what they are going to do. Information exchange is about going in and working with local people first in a language they understand, sharing with them, and, most importantly, building upon their own systems of knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and practices,” Hurley explains.

Once trust is established between locals and the environmental organization through communication programs like the Information Exchange then much of the work that would traditionally be done by conservationists is taken on by locals.

“Someone asked Sally [Jewell Coxe, co-founder and president of BCI] awhile ago, ‘how do you tell these local people who are poor and starving that they should not hunt A-B-and-C’. And her answer was ‘well, we don’t, their peers and their Congolese do’. That’s it. We build the local leadership and they are the ones that then do this, not us,” Hurley explains.

IV. ‘You can’t ignore health care and education; those are not just extraneous things.’

One of the most important aspects of working with the people of Kokolopori has been efforts to provide better infrastructure, along with education and health-care in a region that had known neither.

BCI has sought to improve infrastructure in Kokolopori by providing an atmosphere of cooperative use of resources between locals and visiting conservationists, essentially instilling the philosophy of ‘we are all in this together’. The reserve’s conservation centers are open for the local people to use, providing the region with its first easy access to communicating with the outside world.

“Even though the conservation centers are primarily to support the work of BCI and Vie Sauvage, they’re for the local people, who use them. So unlike parks where you have park headquarters but the people have to knock on the door and ask permission, these are really sites that are of and for the people,” Hurley explains.

According to BCI’s strategic plan the access to radio and satellite phone has transformed the region: “Before BCI installed an HF radio at Kokolopori and provided a satellite phone to Vie Sauvage, the only means of long-distance communication was talking drums.”

Providing better access to education, including higher education, has also been a vital component of BCI’s work in Kokolopori.

“We have supported local schools with material and supplies and roofing,” says Hurley. “As well we have the ISDR-Djolu, the Djolu Institut Superieur de Developpement Rurale, which provides higher level training and education.”

The creation of ISDR was led by Albert Lokasola. The technical college includes coursework in conservation, sustainable agriculture, community development, math, and rural administration.

BCI and its partners have also built the first clinic in the area, called the Bonobo Health Clinic, which includes an on-staff doctor and nurses. The clinic is supported by the Indigo Foundation in Australia and by the Kokolopori-Falls Church Sister City partnership, the first sister cities between the USA and the DRC. The clinic has conducted nutritional studies in the region, which have revealed a protein deficiency in some of the population, a problem that the medical team is striving to correct.

“It has to be a totally holistic approach that addresses things like health care and education, because you can give [local people] a little bit of livelihood support and help them protect their forest, but if their kids are dying of malaria or don’t have medicines, it’s not going to work. They need to have a base,” Hurley says. “You can’t ignore health care and education; those are not just extraneous things.”

V. ‘They are the ones who are controlling this and that generates a huge amount of social capital.’

When BCI entered the region in 2001, they found the villages of Kokolopori devastated by DRC’s long war. All access to markets for agricultural products had been cut, severing the villages’ economy. No products had been going in or out for years. This also led to an up-tick in bushmeat hunting by local peoples for subsistence. BCI and its partners created projects to work with locals to re-invigorate their sustainable agricultural systems and provide access to markets.

One successful program involved working with the region’s staple crop, cassava. When crops were devastated by mosaic disease, which destroyed up to 80 percent of yields, a partnership between BCI, Vie Sauvage, the South-East Consortium for International Development, and the local agricultural cooperative, CAPEC, introduced a new mosaic-disease resistant cassava variety.

As Hurley describes, the new cassava cuttings have been important both for the local people and the forest: “In Kokolopori as in other areas [locals] are cutting into secondary and sometimes primary forests to expand agricultural fields, but they are able to now reduce that agricultural expansion and get higher productivity on smaller plots [with the new cassava cuttings], and then expand the multiplication fields and the other fields which are the people’s. The local people can then also sell the cassava cuttings to other communities and make revenues from that…We are starting to introduce other seed stocks and other crops as well in a planned, carefully phased program that reduces the impact on the forest.”

Other programs have focused on aiding the villages’ women. Through micro-credit programs, BCI and its partners have provided local women with non-electric sewing machines and training. Women are currently selling making and selling dresses locally, while BCI hopes to expand the program internationally. As well, women have been trained in soap-making and salting fish. These micro-credit programs are meant to provide families with additional income and security.

Hurley believes that BCI shows just how much a conservation organization can accomplish, so far, without long lists of wealthy donors by spending wisely and forging important partnerships. Part of the secret is to make certain that communities are aware of where the money is going.

“What’s amazing…is that if the people know we don’t have a huge amount of funding, so even if it’s a little bit of money they know that it goes to them…and they also know…they will have control of it,” Hurley says. “So while they’re hoping for greater funding in the future for many of these programs, even with a small amount of funding it helps motivate and engage the people to be engaged in conservation. But it’s not just the funding, it’s local people’s understanding that they are the ones who are controlling this and that generates a huge amount of social capital.”

VI. ‘It’s outsiders who come in and do commercial bushmeat hunting’.

Wildlife in the DRC currently faces two major threats: habitat loss and hunting. Deforestation for agriculture and logging, including rampant illegal logging, has devastated habitat for many species in the DRC. However, hunting is also a large concern. Congo’s forest elephants have been decimated in recent decades by ivory poachers. Hunting for meat is also on the rise all over central Africa. This practice, known as bushmeat hunting, provides income and protein-rich foods in a part of the world that often lacks both.

While Kokolopori has seen some deforestation due to expanding village agriculture, so far the reserve has avoided attention from logging companies. This has allowed the area to remain relatively pristine compared to other areas in the DRC. But Kokolopori’s wildlife has not been so lucky: “bushmeat hunting is the major threat, and really its commercial bushmeat hunting,” Hurley says.

Hurley adds that although local people hunt, they are largely agriculturists by nature. This fact is something the Congolese have expressed to Vie Sauvage and BCI throughout their meetings in the Information Exchange program.

“It’s logical,” Hurley explains. “While there are spiritual and cultural aspects to some traditional subsistence hunting practices, many locals would much rather get up in the morning and step outside their back door and work in an agricultural field and have improved livestock management, pigs, goats, and chickens. They’d rather have all that outside their back door than spend three or four days in the forest hunting something.”

With increased education and awareness, including the re-establishment of outside markets for their agricultural products and enforcement of hunting regulations, bushmeat hunting by locals will largely become a non-issue. Commercial bushmeat hunting, however, remains a large threat facing the wildlife of Kokolopori.

“In many parts of the Congo and in some parts of Kokolopori it’s outsiders who come in and do commercial bushmeat hunting, they come in and set up camps, they hunt out a forest, and then they smoke the meat, and they transport it, they leave on the river and sell it. And it’s not their forest,” says Hurley.

BCI has increasingly discovered that the key to dealing with bushmeat hunters is reinforcing control by the local authorities. In other words, make the local people, at least in part, responsible for catching and punishing those who invade their forest.

“There are many estimates on how many park guards you need per square kilometer in a certain area, but when you have an entire village, an entire traditional chieftainship, and a hierarchical structure that has certain belief systems and rights, when that whole village is …saying: ‘this is our forest, and we’ve agreed to it, we are agreeing to protect this land’, it’s an awful lot easier” to protect wildlife, according to Hurley. “You, in a sense, have thousands of people who are enforcing the law… [it’s] going to be a lot stronger and a lot more sustainable.”

Kokolopori will also have traditional eco-guards monitoring the reserve through the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN), but, as Hurley says, “our work with the ICCN also recently has shown that they truly believe that this new model may be better.”

At the same time, rules and regulations are still being set up across the reserve. Rather than the usual dogma of no hunting—ever—BCI is working on creating a model that incorporates zoning and traditional practices to allow for some sustainable hunting by the local people. However flagship and endangered species, such as bonobos, will remain under protection in all zones.

“What we’ve learned in other protected areas, is that many local people use protected areas as their hunting zones…because they are frustrated by the fact that they have been thrown out,” explains Hurley. “So, we have to have a gradual transition process where certain sustainable hunting practices are allowed. The local people have traditional systems that have maintained sustainability in hunting, such as seasonality or rotating seasons, having certain areas of sacred forests or designated areas where no hunting is allowed. These ancient traditional systems tend to allow wildlife populations to be replenished. But there is still a lot of work to be done in Kokolopori, as there is even in all the old establish protected areas, to really figure out a good system.”

BCI, its partners, and the local people are still working out the different zoning areas for the reserve, but the zones will be modeled on how the locals use different regions and not determined by non-Congolese.

VII. ‘There is no place else like this in the bonobo habitat’

A major goal of Kokolopori reserve is to protect one of the world’s largest remaining populations of bonobos, with well over a thousand thought to inhabit the reserve.

Categorized as Endangered by the IUCN Red List, bonobos are threatened by both habitat loss and bushmeat hunting. Total population estimates vary widely, from 5,000 to 50,000, but the records of bonobo habitat loss are not so variable. It is estimated that the bonobo has only 24 percent of its habitat remaining. While a United Nations study predicted that bonobo habitat would shrink to 4 percent in twenty years, the lowest for any great ape.

Bonobos have become famous for their largely peaceful, egalitarian society, which contrasts starkly with the, at times, warlike nature of chimpanzees. While chimpanzee society is patriarchal and competitive, females actually hold the highest roles in bonobos society, with the top males chosen according to their mothers.

Bonobos are also known for their bi-sexuality and, in turn, their employment of sex as more than just a procreative act. Sex among the bonobos can be used to relieve stress, establish bonds, and let off steam. Having spent decades in the shadow of their closest relative, the chimpanzee, the bonobos are finally getting the attention they deserve. And Kokolopori is arguably the world’s best place to study or see bonobos.

“We’ve had visitors there. And according to ICCN they’ve never seen anything like this in bonobo habitat. Literally within hours of arriving visitors are looking at bonobos. There is no place else like this in the bonobo habitat,” Hurley says. “We have often heard of visitors to other protected areas in the bonobo habitat where it may take many days or be almost impossible to see bonobos. This is not the case in Kokolopori.”

Hurley adds that although Kokolopori “is very rough, very rough, it is where you can see bonobos.” He attributes this to the fact that Kokolopori, unlike other reserves, has had salaried locals monitoring bonobos groups since 2003. Kokolopori is currently working on setting-up limited eco-tourism.

Aside from bonobos, Kokolopori possesses a wealth of biodiversity. Unlike many forest regions in the DRC, Kokolopori has been relatively undisturbed, leaving healthy thriving ecosystems.

Eleven primate species, not including bonobos, have been identified in the reserve. This includes the Salongo monkey Cercopithecus dryas, which has been discovered in the wild for the first time in Kokolopori. Prior to its discovery in the reserve, the species was only known from markets. In fact, its name, Salongo, means ‘market-day’ in the local language, Lingala. Thollon’s red colobus Procolobus tholloni also inhabits the reserves; this species is so little known that the IUCN has yet to determine its status.

The park also includes the African golden cat Profelis aurata, the sitatunga Tragelaphus spekii, the Congo forest buffalo Syncerus caffer nanus, the bongo Tragelaphus eurycerus eurycerus, the leopard Panthera pardus, and the endangered dwarf crocodile Osteolaemus tetraspis.

Thirteen species of endangered birds have been recorded at Kokolopori, including the gray parrot Psittacus erithacus, which is highly threatened by the pet trade. The reserve also include five near-endemic birds: the Congo peacock Afropavo Congensis listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List, the yellow-legged malimbe Malimbus flavipes, the Congo sunbird Nectarinia Congensis , and two martins: the African river martin Pseudochelidon eurystomina and the Congo martinRiparia Ongica.

Forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis have also been recorded in the reserve, but they “appear to be transient”, says Hurley, who explains that they apparently use Kokolopori as a migration route.

VII. ‘You can’t solve the problem by using the same mindset that created the problem’.

The philosophy of local community engagement and involvement is not only effective according to Hurley but its also relatively inexpensive: “What we have discovered, with so many other folks working in the Congo basin, is some of the big entities say, ‘you know our biggest problem is getting the local communities to work on our programs, to be engaged in our programs’—that’s their biggest problem. You know, we seem to have the solution. We don’t have all the answers, I won’t say that. But we have the solution to part of that problem, we found that we have ways of motivating and engaging local communities, and ironically it’s without much money at all.”

Hurley believes that BCI’s philosophy should not constrained by geographic region, but could be useful in many parts of the world in solving the difficulties that have arisen between protecting nature and respecting the people who live there.

“We have really developed a methodology could be replicated in other parts of the world. In some cases, people talk about it, but they don’t really do it. There’s an Einstein quote that says something like: ‘you can’t solve the problem by using the same mindset that created the problem’. And all too often one goes in with a western mindset geared to developing and designing programs that we simply impose,” Hurley says.

One of the keys to BCI’s work—and one of its most surprising aspects—has been its capacity to spread without any additional effort from BCI.

We provided a training program in Kokolopori, a couple years ago, where we had NGOs and community association members from many different organizations from outside Kokolopori,” Hurley says, gearing up for a good story. “Now one participant took the training and…he went right back to another region far to the west where he worked under a BCI subcontract as part of an Information Exchange team. We learned later that he was so inspired that he went back to his community and utilized his earnings to register an NGO with regional authorities…to protect bonobos and to set the area aside for conservation, and this was without any investment from BCI. That is, it is self-replicating,” Hurley explains. “The local communities are emulating this model, so our projects are self-replicating…and we are promoting systems where they share communications, where the people we’ve trained are training other people.”

One wonders why that same self-replicating process that has occurred on the ground in the jungles of the Congo, could not also occur globally, from the Amazon to Borneo, bringing locals villagers and conservationists together in a common purpose: for a better life and a better world. "

Source and Photographs

Nathan, 8 YO Bonobo Dies

DES MOINES, Iowa - Officials at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines say Nathan, an 8-year-old bonobo ape, has died.

Nathan was the youngest of the bonobos living at the Trust. The animal died Friday after being diagnosed with advanced lymphoma.

The bonobo had experienced trouble breathing and was taken to Iowa State University's Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center in Ames. Tests revealed an inoperable tumor wrapped around the animal's trachea and esophagus.

Nathan died while under sedation on his way back to Des Moines."
Source
Website

Friends of Bonobos-Dr. Brian Hare

Have you been to a football game lately? Think of the last time you were in an arena that seated fifty or even a hundred thousand people. That many people can make a lot of noise, but of course only represent a tiny piece of humanity today. If we could convince all the bonobos in the world to attend such a game, you could not come close to filling even the smallest professional football stadium. Our closest living relative is slipping off the precipice; their extinction in our own lifetime is a real possibility.

The best estimates of the current bonobo population in the wild are somewhere between 5,000–50,000 individuals; all live in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the only country in which they are found indigenously (Teleki and Baldwin 1979, Kano 1984, Van Krunkelsven 2001). While it might seem an administrative blessing to have bonobos concentrated in one single large country, this rare species still shares all the problems of population fragmentation, habitat loss, and victimization due to the bushmeat trade practice by their African cousins. In addition, by being concentrated in one country, this species’ survival is dependent upon the state of one single nation – for better or worse.

The ubiquitous threats to African apes seem particularly acute in the case of the bonobo as a result of DRC’s ill fortune during the past decade. However, the DRC has begun recovering from a decade of wars and now has the chance to jump from an impoverished victim of an oft forgotten war between seven nations, to a regional power as it struggles to redevelop its shattered economy through what to many must seem like an infinite supply of natural resources (Clark 2002). What will the increasing political stability and economic opportunity mean for the remaining wild bonobo populations? How is the future of the remaining bonobo populations linked
to the fortunes of Congo? What methods are available and which ones should we utilize to assure their survival in the wild?

In this chapter, we outline how Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary plays a vital role both in offering lifelong care to bonobos who become orphans of the bushmeat trade, and in acting as an instrument for the conservation of the remaining wild bonobos.

We present data on the arrival rate of bonobo orphans that suggest that the fate of wild bonobos is inextricably linked to DRC’s path towards development. We therefore argue that the coming decade will be a crossroad for the wild bonobo, and that all methods available, however disparate, must be used to assure their survival. As a result, we conclude by considering the possibility of releasing sanctuary bonobos back into the wild as a possible future tool forfor the stabilization of wild bonobo populations.

The Conservation Strategy for Apes

There is only one method for the protection of wild ape populations, and that is through the protection of ape habitat. There are three conventional steps to protecting this habitat: 1) work with a government to set aside as large a habitat area as possible where human activities that are detrimental to ape survival (e.g. hunting and logging) are banned, and such bans are consistently and effectively enforced; 2) work with the government and local population to implement programs for sustainable economic development and education in and around the protected area; and 3) demonstrate the direct economic value of the protected area to the government and
local population – typically through tourism. Implementing these three steps has produced success stories where wild ape populations which were destined for extinction have been protected for decades through aggressive efforts to protect their habitat and health. The mountain gorillas arguably represent the most famous
case of such success. This species, with its small population size, would likely be extinct today if its remaining habitat was not actively protected, attention had not been drawn to their plight, and they were not recognized as a valuable economic asset for attracting tourists.

Previous success gives hope for the future that we will continue to improve our success gives hope for the future that we will continue to improve our ability to protect sustainable numbers of the remaining wild ape populations. However, the unfortunate reality is that protected area management in ape habitat countries has proven to be fraught with difficulties, and in most areas, including those with the highest levels of protection, wild ape populations are in decline Jolly 2005, Butynski 2001). These difficulties are born from a complex of sources.

Historically protected areas have not been gazetted based on population viability assessments but instead, and quite understandably, on a “bigger is better” philosophy. Meanwhile, protection comes in many different flavors. Laws are often either too weak to allow for appropriate enforcement or enforcement is too inconsistent to
protect slow breeding ape populations that are especially vulnerable to acute hunting and logging pressures (White and Tutin 2001). Overall, many wild apes – including bonobos – live within unsustainable, genetically isolated populations that cannot depend on consistent protection from human threats (e.g., imminent threat from disease, hunting, logging etc). As a result, even some protected ape populations have all but disappeared, such as the gorillas of Kahuzi Biega, UNESCO World Heritage Site DRC, the bushmeat trade has flourished, and thousands of orphaned infant apes have flooded markets across Africa over the past decades. If we are to save a place for wild bonobos (and other great apes), effective tools are needed to further strengthen the conventional protected area strategy and reverse the current trend.

Sanctuaries for Conservation

African ape sanctuaries have evolved as one such supplemental tool by offering a second level of protection to wild ape populations when frontline conservation strategies failed to protect individuals from the bushmeat trade. As a member of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary is one such sanctuary located just outside of Kinshasa, the capital of DRC. Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary has been in operation since 1996 and is the DRC’s and the world’s only sanctuary for orphaned bonobos.

Since 2002 the sanctuary has provided 30 hectares of primary tropical rainforest to the bonobos who live there. Previously the sanctuary, with smaller numbers of bonobos, was located in facilities at the American School in downtown Kinshasa.

Currently, 53 bonobos now range freely in three different social groups throughout the day at the sanctuary (see Table 15.1 and Fig. 15.1a). Typically, bonobos arrive as young infants and begin life at the sanctuary with close care from a substitute human mother, but are usually quickly ready to be integrated into a peer group, and shortly after into one of the large mixed-age social groups (See Fig. 15.1b). This means that the sanctuary bonobos can supplement their provisioned diet by navigating in order to forage on the dozens of edible plants available in the forest, can compete for mating opportunities among group mates, and can learn to avoid dangers
such as stepping on poisonous snakes just as they would in the wild. As a result, the bonobos at Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary, living in their forested microcosm, are for the most part able to exhibit the full complement of naturally occurring behaviors observed in wild bonobos (in fact, they actually display some behaviors such as
tool use that had not been observed in the wild.

Because of the living conditions in the setting provided, the sanctuary can play a critical role by demonstrating the level of humane treatment that captive apes deserve, the same time, why do we also believe that sanctuaries like ours help protect wild apes? First, our sanctuary allows for the enforcement of domestic and international
conservation laws aimed at preventing the trade of live bonobos. Second, the sanctuary acts as a mouth piece for conservation efforts in DRC by educating thousands of Congolese visitors each year about the value of Congo’s natural history, in particular the bonobo – their unique Congolese inheritance.

Source

Bonobos, Dying in Congo Sanctuary From Flu Epidemic

Located in sixty acres of forest, the Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary is a place for bonobos who have been confiscated by police following attempts to sell them to pet markets in the US, Europe, or Middle East. The sanctuary provides rehabilitation for the bonobos and educates the local populace about the apes in an effort to curb hunting bush meat, one of the major threats to bonobos and apes across Africa. The center eventually hopes to reintroduce some of the bonobos back into the wild.

Bonobos are smaller than Common chimpanzees. They also sport pink lips and a black face. Behaviorally, bonobos are quite different from common chimpanzees. Whereas common chimpanzees live in patriarchal groups, bonobo groups are dominated by females. They are less violent than chimpanzees and do not engage in warfare like common chimpanzees. In addition, bonobos are famous for their sexual openness, including using sexual activity as a greeting and a way of mitigating conflict.

Bonobos are listed as endangered by IUCN's Red List. Only found in the DRC estimates of their population vary widely, from 5,000 to 50,000 individuals. Bonobos are threatened by habitat loss, deforestation, the pet trade, the bushmeat market, and even for use in witchcraft.

Six bonobos, a species of chimpanzee, have died from a flu epidemic in a month at the Lola Ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ten more have contracted the flu.

“There is no fever. Antibiotics don’t do anything. The bonobos have severe respiratory infections and then they can’t breath for 3 days then they die,” writes a staff member on the sanctuary's blog through the conservation organization WildlifeDirect. The staff of Lola Ya Bonobo have sent out a plea for help and donations, as the flu continues to sweep through their center. "

Source