Brains of peaceful Bonobo apes differ from those of aggressive chimps - Brian Hare

Photo courtesy of Vanessa Woods/ - Bonobos, an endangered species of primate in Central Africa, are much mellower than chimpanzees.
The striking absence of aggression among one species of ape — bonobos, sometimes called pygmy chimpanzees — may be hard-wired into their brains, a new study suggests.

Though closely related to chimps, the endangered bonobos of central Africa are much mellower.

“They are the only ape in our family that does not kill,” said Brian Hare, an assistant professor who studies chimpanzees and bonobos at Duke University.

In contrast, male chimpanzees have been documented dispatching infants sired by other males. They also stalk and kill outsider chimps, often by stomping the interloper to death.
The much more laid-back bonobos react to stress by sharing, playing and engaging in lots of sex.
“It’s not like they never have antagonistic interactions,” Hare said of the bonobos. “But it’s a joke compared to what you see in chimpanzees.”
Scientists studying apes as a window into human behavior are eager to tease apart these differences, asking how they arose in the 1 million to 2 million years of evolution that separate chimps and bonobos.

The new study, which gathered detailed brain images of both species, hints at an intriguing answer: The brains of bonobos may be wired to chill.
In the study, James Rilling of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, part of Emory University in Atlanta, scanned the brains of 13 living and dead bonobos and chimps. One imaging method, used with the living animals, built pictures of gray matter, the large-scale structures of the brain. The second technique, used on the deceased animals, filled in lines of white matter, the neuronal wires connecting various brain regions.

By combining the images, “you can get at circuits in the brain, how the brain is organized,” Rilling said.

Compared with those of chimps, bonobo brains displayed bigger, more developed regions thought to be vital for feeling empathy, perceiving distress in others and feeling anxiety, Rilling said.

One of these structures, the right anterior insula, is crucial for generating empathy, as people with damage to this region notably lack the ability to perceive how others are feeling, Rilling said.

Even more notably, Rilling said, bonobo brains carry a thick connection between a flash point of emotion and a higher brain region that helps control impulses. This neuronal wire runs from the amygdala, a deep-seated and evolutionarily old emotional center that can spark aggression, to a region called the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, which is thought be important for suppressing impulsive behavior.

Chimp brains displayed a much thinner connection along this aggression-suppression pathway, meaning the channel carries less information.

The thicker connection in bonobos may explain why the animals are “better at regulating [aggressive] impulses and better at avoiding anti-social behavior,” said Rilling, who published the study in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

But “this pathway does not function very well in people who are psychopaths, people with conduct disorder, people who don’t take others’ feelings into consideration,” Rilling said.

Besides being less aggressive than apes, bonobos are notably more anxious. Experts say the urge to soothe this anxiety may be impulse that drives the animals to engage in frequent sex and rough-house play.
The scans highlight a possible source of this anxiety-and-release lifestyle: An enlarged stress-response center called the hypothalamus. This brain region triggers the release of stress hormones and is “strongly implicated” in response to fear and anxiety, Rilling noted.

One question prompted by the study: why the social brains of these two species diverged so dramatically. Emerging theories suggest that bonobos evolved on one side of the Congo River with great food abundance, whereas chimps evolved on the other side of the river where intense competition for food may have driven the apes to fight and claw their way into every fruit tree.

Hare, who was not involved in the study, said the new findings support a theory he is developing that bonobos are “self-domesticated.” Whereas aggressive chimps are akin to wild wolves, he said, bonobos act more like domesticated dogs.

“There’s been a really strong natural selection against aggression in bonobos,” Hare said. “It’s been a natural process.” That process, in turn, may have been driven by the differing environments in which the two species evolved.

Although the study offers tantalizing glimpses into the social evolution of the two species, Rilling acknowledged that the small number of brains he scanned means the results are preliminary. “We really need a larger sample,” he said. “But bonobo brains are hard to come by.”

Experts say fewer than 10,000 bonobos survive in the wild; an additional 84 live in U.S. zoos.
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Male aggression in the Bonobo Society is just simply not tolerated says Brian Hare

Humans share 98.7 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, but we share one important similarity with one species of chimp, the common chimpanzee, that we don't share with the other, the bonobo. That similarity is violence. While humans and the common chimpanzee wage war and kill each other, bonobos do not. "There has never been a recorded case in captivity or in the wild of a bonobo killing another bonobo," notes anthropologist Brian Hare.

Hare is an assistant professor in evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), he and his wife and colleague, Vanessa Woods, studied bonobo behavior at Lola ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an orphanage for young bonobos whose parents were killed for the bush meat trade. The war-torn Congo is the only place in the world where these endangered apes can be found.

"We go to this sanctuary and we play these fun problem-solving games with them to just try and get inside their heads and figure out exactly how they think," says Woods. "They're wonderful animals to be related to. It's a shame so few people have heard of them."

Woods is author of the book "Bonobo Handshake," a memoir about her experiences with these peaceful, playful primates, and some of the differences she noted between bonobos and common chimpanzees.

"Chimpanzees can be very empathetic, loving but they also have this darker side. They have war, they kill each other, they beat their females. Bonobos don't really have any of that," explains Woods. "They're different because they've managed to live in a society virtually without violence. How do they do that? Humans, for all of our intelligence and all our technology, we haven't managed to live without war, and so I think that's something very important that bonobos can teach us."

One way bonobos deal with conflict and tension is to have sex. Yes, they're the ultimate hippies--they make love, not war. "Whenever things get tense in the bonobo world, they'll usually have some kind of sociosexual activity and this seems to really help everybody get along. But another one of the ways that they sort of have this peaceful society is they're naturally more tolerant. They share more, and if one of them gets upset, it's not just sex but they can also hug and comfort one another."

In one study, Woods and Hare were surprised when a hungry bonobo opened a gate to share prized treats with another bonobo. "The idea that you would give something to someone else at a cost to yourself, we thought this was something only humans would do."

Bonobos' generous nature likely evolved because they live in an area of the Congo where food is plentiful. They never had to compete with gorillas or kill for a meal like common chimps do.

The females stick together, creating a matriarchal society, and when necessary will gang up on threatening males. "Females will work together to protect themselves from male aggression. So male aggression is just simply not tolerated," says Hare.

With chimps, the most aggressive males tend to team up to dominate females and weaker males. In bonobo society, Hare says it's the mother and son relationship that commands the most respect.

"Basically, bonobos are the ultimate 'mama's boys.' Essentially, it's more like a debutante society where mothers have to introduce their sons into polite society and it's through your mother, as a bonobo, that you will gain access to other females," explains Hare.

How did two such similar species, the bonobo and the common chimpanzee, evolve so differently? Hare says understanding that may shed light on human behavior, considering that we are a lot like both of them.
"Humans are probably the most generous species on the planet," notes Hare, which is very bonobo-like. But like chimps, Hare says, we have that dark side. "Bonobos don't have a darker side. So, although they can't fly to the moon, they don't kill each other. I think they challenge your normal notion of what intelligence is. I think we have a lot to learn from them."

(Video: Science Nation, Miles O'Brien/Science Nation Correspondent, Ann Kellan/Science Nation Producer)
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Study shows female Bonobo Apes use cries to signal the social status of their partner

A study has shown that female bonobo chimpanzees use sex cries to signal the social status of their partner and, as a consequence, themselves.

Bonobos are notoriously promiscuous, with instances of group sex and females often engaging in same sex relations. Research published in the February edition of Biology Letters revealed that females cry out when copulating with either sex, and when two females are together, the lower ranking one cries out to signal her achievement.

"Female bonobos achieve power by forming coalitions with other females as well as males, so getting powerful female friends, and advertising it, matters," Zanna Clay, a primatologist at the University of St. Andrews University told LiveScience. "Like humans, sex among bonobos is not only used for reproduction, it is also important in other ways, such as friendship and bonding, and keeping close to powerful others."

Typically, female cries were seen to represent the ability to attract a superior partner and an aptitiude for sex, thus making themselves more attractive to other potential mates and increasing chances of reproducing. This recent study proves that the cries are used for other purposes.

When lower-ranking females copulate with either sex, it was found the chances of the inferior bonobo crying out increased as its partner's social ranking increased, irrespective of sex. This demonstrates that the main point of the cry is to announce new alliances -- but only the ones worth shouting about.

The endangered bonobo species are the closest living relatives to humans, along with chimpanzees, yet little is known about them. They can only be found in the wild in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making it difficult to study them for any extended period.

"The political instability and poor logistics of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the forest's remoteness, mean that research on bonobos still remains a great challenge," explains Clay.

The team spent a year monitoring the animals, but Clay admits more research would be needed to understand how bonobos interpret the calls.
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12 year old Bonobo, Isiro loses her first baby, so sad

Isiro, a 12 year old female recently gave birth to a tiny little male, so small in fact that we believed that he may have been born prematurely. Aside from the hairs on his tiny head, the rest of his body was totally naked. We decided to keep Isiro, who is both young and a first time mother, in observation in the night cages of enclosure 2 for a few days. Alas, her milk was taking it’s time to come despite the fact that the baby was suckling correctly but to no end… He was just too small, and with no milk from his mother to make him any stronger unfortunately he didn’t make it!


This is not the first time we have been faced with this problem but there is little we can do… we can give fennel herbal tea to help stimulate the lactation process but other than that we are pretty helpless.
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What is a Bonobo Ape?

It is difficult to answer the question: "What is a Bonobo?" Bonobos are complex beings with profound intelligence, emotionality, and sensitivity. It's like asking the question: "What is a human?" And, how do you answer? Philosophers, scientists, and mystics have been trying to figure it out for thousands of years!

Biologically speaking, bonobos are the closest you can get to being human without being human. Bonobos look more like humans than other apes, and display many behavioral similarities as well. Bonobos and people share more than 98% of the same genetic make-up (DNA). Bonobos and their cousins the chimpanzees, are more closely related genetically to us than they are to gorillas! But, like gorillas, they dwell only in the equatorial forests of central Africa, the cradle of humanity itself.

Bonobos are great apes, along with chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas. Because we share so many characteristics with these simian species, some scientists contend that humans should be classified as apes too. Indigenous people who have dwelled among bonobos in the Congo forest have many legends about how bonobos and man were brothers in the distant past. They tell stories about how bonobos showed people what foods to eat in the forest, how a bonobo saved a man who needed help, how bonobos themselves are trying to become human.
These apes have fascinated indigenous people of Africa for hundreds, even thousands of years, yet to most of the world's population, they have been known to exist only for the span of one lifetime. Bonobos were not discovered by scientists until 1933, and even then, not alive, but in the Tervuren Museum in Belgium, identified by means of a skull. Classified as Pan paniscus, bonobos have been studied in the wild and in captivity for about 30 years, since the mid-1970s. They dwell in the tropical forests of the Congo Basin south of the Congo River. Bonobos are found in only one country: the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), a resource-rich region ravaged by years of war.
Although more research is needed to determine current populations, we do know that that their numbers have been decimated during the war. Urgent help is needed.

A Different Breed of Ape

Bonobos stand apart from the other great apes in fascinating and important ways.

Physically, their anatomy most closely resembles Australopithecus, our early human ancestor. Bonobos walk bipedally, on two feet, more easily and for longer periods of time than the other apes. They are highly intelligent. Some bonobos in captivity have even learned to use human language! But perhaps the most compelling feature of bonobos is their society.

Peaceful and powered by females
... In contrast to the competitive, male-dominated culture of their close relative the chimpanzee, bonobo society is peaceful, matriarchal and more egalitarian. Bonobos live in large groups where harmonious coexistence is the norm. While in many ways, males and females have "separate but equal" roles, females carry the highest rank, and the sons of ranking females are the leaders among males. Females form close bonds and alliances, which is another way they maintain their power among males, who are larger and stronger physically.

Like chimps, bonobo society is "male philopatric," meaning that the females migrate to other groups when they reach puberty. This eliminates the chance of incest and increases genetic diversity. However, the wild bonobo population is so fragmented now in the Congo, with small groups living in isolated pockets, that the sustainability of the species is severely threatened. It will be critical for us to establish protected areas and corridors to provide for genetic viability of the species. However, bonobos share a human landscape, and our work with indigenous Congolese people is an important aspect of bonobo conservation. Learn about BCI's programs to protect bonobos.

"Make Love, Not War"

Bonobos seem to ascribe to the 1960s hippie credo, "make love, not war." They make a lot of love, and do so in every conceivable fashion. Beyond that, they are very loving too, showing care and compassion for each other in many ways. Sex in bonobo society transcends reproduction, as it does in humans. It serves as a way of bonding, exchanging energy and sharing pleasure.

Bonobos have been described as "pansexual" by psychologist Frans de Waal. Sex permeates the fabric of bonobo society, weaving through all aspects of daily life. It serves an important function in keeping the society together, maintaining peaceful, cooperative relations. Besides heterosexual contact, both male and female bonobos engage in same-sex encounters, and even group sex occurs. Female-female contact, or "GG-rubbing," is actually the most common. Unlike other apes, bonobos frequently copulate face-to-face, looking into each others eyes. When bonobo groups meet in the forest, they greet each other, bond sexually, and share food instead of fighting. Likewise, almost any conflict between bonobos is eased by sexual activity, grooming, or sharing food.
Like humans, bonobo females are sexually receptive throughout most of their estrus cycle. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), on the other hand, only mate during the few days when a female is fertile. Generally, the ranking males in chimp society "get the girls." Male chimps make macho displays to impress females and can be quite vehement in their demands. Consequently, chimp females do not have much control over who they mate with. Bonobo males tend to be a bit more polite. They ask first, by displaying themselves in a persuasive but non-aggressive manner, offering food or making other propositions - and bonobo females have the right to refuse.
The sexual aspect of bonobo behavior is best understood in the context of bonobo culture. Sex does not necessarily mean the same thing to a bonobo that it does to a human. However, it raises compelling questions about the roots of human nature, and is particularly striking in contrast to chimpanzee society. Scholars continue to study this unique phenomenon and debate its implications.

Swingin' in the Trees ... Singin' in the Breeze

What's it like to come upon a group of bonobos in the forest? First of all, you'd better look up! Bonobos spend a lot of time high in the rainforest canopy. These acrobatic apes move through the trees swiftly and gracefully, maneuvering through the forest to forage on fruit and other foods. They also travel on the ground, often single file along their own sort of trail system. They tend to like swampy areas, where sometimes they dig for grubs or small crustaceons. Bonobos have complex mind maps of the forest and coordinate travel through vocalizations and other forms of communication people do not yet understand.
Bonobos live in groups of up to 100, breaking up into foraging groups by day and gathering to nest at night, in a fission-fusion modality. When bonobos gather in the trees to make their night nests, they fill the twilight with a symphony of soprano squeals. Their high-pitched vocalizations sound like a flock of exotic birds, compared to the more gutteral hoots of chimpanzees.
Bonobos eat a variety of foods, including fruits, nuts, seeds, sprouts, vegetation, and mushrooms. They eat various parts of plants, including the leaves, flowers, bark, stems, pith, and roots. They also eat small mammals, insect larvae, earthworms, honey, eggs, and soil. Unlike chimpanzees who form hunting parties to capture monkeys, bonobos do not aggressively hunt mammals. On rare occasions, they have been observed to capture duikers (small antelope) or flying squirrels, but this seems to be circumstantial.

Bonobos do forage for "mbindjos," or caterpillars, the larvae of various butterfly species. Mbindjos are also collected and eaten by local villagers who share the forest with bonobos. In fact, indigenous people of the Congo Basin and bonobos eat many of the same foods.

Life Stage Age (years)
Nursing Period 0-5
First Genital swelling 7
Begins to wander between groups 8
Settles into new group 9-13
Menarche and first-sized swelling 10
Growth-cessation 14-16
First offspring 13-15
Cessation of ovulation 40
Longevity 50-55
Number of offspring possible in lifetime: 5-6

Information Credit Here, photos and to donate to the BCI

Participate in the Congo Challenge to help the Bonobos

Australian researcher Vanessa Woods studies the co-operative nature of bonobos in a wildlife sanctuary in the DRC

Bonobos are humankind's closest relatives -- so much so that humans may be classified asanother kind of great ape except for the fact that we we are defining the classification -- yet most people do not know they exist! Bonobos were last great ape species to be discovered. And they could be the first to go extinct if we do not act quickly to save them and their rainforest home.

They only live in one country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire). Bonobos stand apart from the other great apes in fascinating and important ways. But perhaps the most compelling aspect of bonobos is their society based on sex rather than war...
Make Love, Not War

“Bonobos share 99 percent of their DNA with humans, more than any other primate, and bonobos are much nearer to us in physiognomy than chimpanzees. Unlike chimps, bonobos have broad shoulders and torsos that are proportioned much like humans. Bonobos can and often do walk upright with a human-like gait.”

“There are less than 150 bonobos in zoos and 10,000 at most in the wild. Due to the civil war and breakdown of communications in the large area of jungle between the Congo and Kasai rivers that the bonobos inhabit, their actual numbers are not known, but it is feared that their numbers have been greatly reduced by the trade in ‘bush meat’...”

“Bonobos also have other human attributes... Unlike other primates, humans and bonobos have separated sex from its reproductive function, and use it as a medium of exchange. Sexual transactions in humans are to obtain something for the individual who grants the favor, whereas bonobos use sex to defuse social tensions, to maintain a peaceful community.”

“Bonobos not only want peace within their communities, they want peace with other bonobo communities and with all the world. Humans, like chimpanzees, murder their neighbors to expand their territory, kill females and infants in genocide, batter their own females into submission, and commit rape. Chimpanzees hunt for meat and even commit cannibalism within their own social group.”

“Bonobos [do] the exact opposite, live in female managed societies where violence is not tolerated, where rape and infanticide do not exist, where other species are not killed, and where a wide variety of enjoyable sexual activities are used to enhance friendships and to resolve conflicts.”

“[N]otice that female bonobos, like human women, have large breasts that are not functionally necessary for nursing, but serve for sexual attraction. Like human females, the genitalia of female bonobos are in the front, for face to face copulation, which makes humans and bonobos unique among the primates.”

Conservation Saves Lives

The Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI) is dedicated to ensuring the survival of the bonobo (Pan paniscus) and its tropical forest habitat in the Congo Basin. By working nationally, internationally, and with indigenous Congolese people through cooperative conservation and community development programs, BCI is establishing new protected areas and leading efforts to safeguard bonobos wherever they are found.

•BCI has a new brochure filled with information and photos about work in the Congo.

•Adopt a Bonobo. Make a difference by giving the gift of bonobo conservation today. Adoption, for yourself or as a gift, will help BCI continue its work to save the bonobos. Adoption directly supports efforts to create new protected areas, rescuing bonobos that have been orphaned or captured, and supporting dedicated rangers and monitoring teams.

•Congo Challenge Grant: Double the impact of gifts to BCI by participating in the Congo Challenge, a dollar-for-dollar
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The Bonobo Conservation Initiative website here and to donate

Reproductive behaviors of Chimpanzees and Bonobos

The study of cooperation and competition is fundamental to the field of social behaviour (Harcourt, A.H., & de Waal, F., Eds., 1992, Oxford University Press). Many of these publications, particularly in the field of primatology, have addressed coalitions and alliances, especially among males who were assumed until relatively recently to be the strategic sex. A new report by Surbeck et al. provides additional insights into the costs and benefits of coalitions and other close associations for males. In particular, these authors studied polygynandrous bonobos (Pan paniscus) finding that maternal support increases a son's reproductive success with the potential to decrease the reproductive success of dominants. Presumably, mothers gain via indirect fitness. Another important aspect of the new report is the finding that males exhibit a steep, linear dominance hierarchy. Surbeck et al. suggest that bonobos are intermediary between chimpanzees (exhibiting coercive social traits) and polygynandrous muruquis (characterized in the literature as "egalitarian") on a putative continuum of aggression. Of further significance is the authors' insight that agonistic (and, possibly, other) support modifies spatial dynamics among males so that females are no longer defensible for the dominant. It seems, also, that support may decrease the benefits and/or increase the costs of aggression. It is widely known that dispersal in mammals is primarily male biased (i.e., in most species, males disperse from their natal groups before reproducing, often termed "female-philopatry"). In these species, support of daughters by mothers is known to enhance daughters' reproductive success. Surbeck et al. hypothesized that the same pattern would be found in species in which dispersal is female biased (e.g., bonobos), and their hypothesis was supported. In primates, dispersal in prosimians and cercopithecine monkeys is primarily male biased; in apes and many Neotropical monkeys, dispersal is female biased. Where kinship was known in studies of coalitions and alliances across the order, it is notable that, in polygynandrous chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), a congeneric of the bonobo, coalitions have been found to be independent of kinship. Unlike chimpanzees, bonobo females are dominant over males, a trait that may, in part, explain Surbeck et al.'s findings. Many other features of mammalian individuals and groups remain to be investigated before the differential benefits and costs of coalitionary behavior are understood. For example, few studies have reported alternative reproductive behaviors such as cryptic responses that might enhance male reproductive success. Related to this, few studies have tested Fisher's hypothesis that, over the long term, frequency-dependent selection should equalize fitness of alternative phenotypes. It would be helpful to view dominant and subordinate organisms and their differential traits as displays of alternate phenotypes (rather than "individuals" in use in the "social sciences") and to study these as products of condition-dependent genetic processes (e.g., switches). Phenotypes would, then, be amenable to mapping over space. Comparative studies might investigate the sociosexual and ecological causes for female-philopatry as an ancestral trait in mammals, including primates. For some of the many questions remaining, species exhibiting bisexual dispersal (e.g., mantled howler monkeys: Jones, C.B., 1980, Primates 21: 389-405, in which all age/sex combinations of coalitions were observed to occur) may yield interesting comparative data.

Surbeck, M., Mundry, R. & Hohmann, G. 2011. Mothers matter! Maternal support, dominance status, and mating success in male bonobos. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 278: 590-598.
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Orphaned Bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo need your help!

Dear friends of bonobos,

We can begin the New Year by telling you that we have now reached 28 000 $ for the new Nursery/Quarantine facility at Lola and it is only early January… we still have all month to reach our target of 50 000$!

Thank you for your support so far but we still need you…

the bonobos still need you!!!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
You can help by donating to this great cause here

Proverty can be fought by contributing to the Conservation of Endangered Apes

BLURB - Conservation of endangered apes in many African countries could contribute to the fight against poverty, suggests a recent study.

WINDHOEK – Where there are apes, there is poverty – in Africa. But, pointed out a study by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), this scenario can be turned around.

This comes with an increased understanding and acknowledgement that the conservation of biodiversity leads to the conservation of livelihoods, especially for those living close to the environment.
“Efforts to conserve apes have great potential also to reduce poverty but the actual, or perceived, negative impacts of conservation may result in local apathy – or even outright hostility – to conservation efforts,” commented a senior researcher with the IIED, Dilys Roe.
The International Union of Conservation of Nature has declared Africa’s apes – the bonobos, chimpanzees and gorillas – as endangered or critically endangered because of hunting and deforestation.

The IIED said early efforts to conserve these species in strictly controlled protected areas have often led to conflict with local communities, whose access to forest resources they enjoyed for generations have become restricted. But the introduction of a new integrated conservation and development strategy that aims at creating benefits for local communities, while reducing their reliance on forest-based resources in natural parks, has shown a significant reduction in conflict, and hence reduction of the destruction of apes.

This project first started in two national parks in Uganda and was eventually extended to 18 other African countries.

In Uganda, there was a serious onslaught on the natural forests of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, leading to a threat to the conservation of the highly endangered Mountain Gorilla.

Bwindi borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and is home to about half of the world’s population of Mountain Gorilla.

It has been managed as a protected area since 1932, and later gazetted as a forest reserve and then as a game sanctuary in 1961.

From 1961 until 1991, said the IIED, it was managed as a forest reserve and game sanctuary. By 1991, it was gazetted a national park in an attempt to conserve its threatened fauna and flora.

In 1994, the park was declared a World Heritage Site. This meant that the local communities who for centuries used this forest area as a source of timber, minerals, non-timber forest resources, game and agricultural land, now could no longer do so, even though these activities have led to significant losses to the forest, especially during the 1980’s.

The Mgahinga Gorilla National Park borders Rwanda and the DRC, and was initially managed as a gorilla sanctuary from 1931 to 1941 before it became both a game and forest reserve until 1991.

The IIED said the park was heavily encroached on and settled, and when the Ugandan government declared the areas as national parks in 1991, more than 2400 people were displaced at Mgahinga.

The 1991 legislation intensified conflict between local communities and the management of the parks, with the closure of the forest-resource use coupled with the arrest of local people engaged in mining and timber harvesting.

At Bwindi, about 1773 people were evicted and the local people could no longer legally use the forest-resources, which led to a massive increase in prices of forest products.

This in turn led to declining incomes for forest-dependent households and a reduction of food security, according to 1996 statistics.

“These impacts were felt most acutely by the poorest and most marginalised social groups (mostly the Batwa community chased out of the Bwindi area) who tended to be most heavily dependent on forest products,” said the IIED.

The Batwa is considered a marginal group of hunter-gatherers who drew important cultural and social values from the two forest areas. Today, they are all evicted from the Bwindi area and live squatter lives on the periphery of the two national parks.
The IIED said resentment and discontent over the dislocation persists to this day, nearly 20 years later, which is aggravated by “crop raiding” of adjacent agricultural fields by wildlife from the national parks.

Hence the decision to embark on the integrated conservation and development initiative of which activities range from single outreach programmes that aim to ‘improve’ local attitudes to conservation, to initiatives that give communities decision-making power over natural resource management and ways to benefit from them.
Hence the integrated conservation and development initiative, stated the IIED, of which activities range from single outreach initiatives that aim to “improve” local attitudes to conservation, to initiatives that give communities decision-making power over natural resource management and ways to benefit from them.

“These conservation initiatives are making a concerted effort to address poverty issues, but surprisingly few of them seem to explore whether or not they have been successful by measuring or reporting on the results of their efforts,” said researcher Chris Sandbrock.

One strategy is to generate income from ‘gorilla tourism’, or ‘great ape tourism’, which is a popular way of exploiting the presence of apes into money for local communities.

However, the IIED suggested that revenue from great ape tourism is rarely shared with local people on a “significant enough scale” to give local communities enough incentive to support the conservation of these apes.

Another strategy piloted in 1993 was to re-establish certain specific user rights of buffer zone communities to key resources within the national parks like medicinal plants, fibers for basket weaving and the production of granaries, as well as bee-keeping.

Another was a first attempt by the Ugandan authorities’ protected area system - and a first for Africa – to develop resource use agreements with local communities.

These allow for beekeeping and the collection of bamboo rhizomes for on-farm planting.

Yet another strategy introduced in the late 1990s was park revenue sharing in support of the adjacent community development projects, such as the rehabilitation of schools and health facilities.

This revenue was initially generated from gorilla trekking fees, and was later changed to an allocation of a certain percentage from the park entry fees.

The IIED said this has led to a significant decrease in revenue to the communities because most money was generated from gorilla trekking.

With lobbying from local and international groups, the Ugandan Government decided to add one percent of the gorilla trekking fee to the community development revenue pot.

Other funds generated through a forest conservation fund have so far been invested into communal infrastructure projects, mostly schools.

And, said the IIED, the tourism programme has generated local benefits through community-based tourism enterprises.

But communities, their leaders and politicians differ over how the generated funds should be spent.

On the one hand, individual households have favoured projects that generate income that can be used to offset some of the direct costs of conservation – like crop raiding by wildlife – while local leaders and politicians have favoured social infrastructure projects, to which the bulk of the funds have been directed.

But, stated the IIED, the new strategy has led to the conservation of the Mountain Gorilla and other wildlife in the parks.

A 5 percent increase in the Mountain Gorilla numbers have been recorded since 2002, which compares very favourably with other African countries that have great ape populations.

Furthermore, it said that park boundaries have stabilised with almost no loss of forest cover inside the national parks as incidences of encroachment have rarely been reported since 1995.

Furthermore, said the IIED, when deliberate steps are taken to spread the effects of tourism revenues, benefits through local employment can be realised through a range of channels.
Story Credit here

Bonobos at Lola ya Bonobo find Palm Wine

Suzy wrote to us to tell us about the latest bonobo antics:

Our bonobos got all caught up on the local’s most valuable activity… extracting wine from the palm trees scattered through the reserve. These palm trees are often left with containers in them in order to collect the drink, up until now they had been in zones which the bonobos haven’t really frequented, particularly right on the river bank.

Jug for collecting palm wine.

But then the other day, walking through the forest, we were surprised to see Lomela, the youngest in the female alliance, spot a jug hanging up high in a palm tree. Curious as she is, she climbed up and began sipping the wine, in a proclamation of joy at the sweet drink she began vocalising, attracting the attention of the whole group who each helped themselves in turn.

Lomela after a refreshing beverage

The best part was for the females of the alliance, who obviously had first dibs…and of course the wine tasting was followed by a sex orgy to celebrate such a great finding!!! Poor Kubulu was the only one to not get a taste, not easy when you’re not allowed to get in the big guys gang. Fortunately, fresh palm wine has no alcohol in it being that it hasn’t yet fermented… so no drunk bonobos and the day went on as usual!

Story Credit Here

Bonobos and Chimpanzees have different Behaviours

Bonobos are the new darlings of the noble savage crowd. They were bitterly disappointed by the rest of the great apes that, as recently as the 1970’s, were all supposed to be peaceful, vegetarian, and inoffensive. When Jane Goodall and others started actually observing great apes in the wild and, as chronicled in books such as Wrangham and Peterson’s Demonic Males, found that they occasionally displayed a few less endearing traits, such as hunting and eating meat, rape, infanticide, and the use of weapons in violent border warfare and raiding, true believers in the innate “goodness” of mankind demonstrated their own nobility by subjecting the messengers to furious ad hominem attacks. It didn’t work. Too many observers were reporting the same thing, and the evidence was too compelling.

Enter the Bonobo. They supposedly possess all the “good” traits their close relatives, the chimpanzees, so notably lack. Occasionally their halo will slip. For example, they compete for status, just like the other great apes. Then, too, their hagiographers will occasionally slip up. I was at a lecture about them once at which the speaker sought to emphasize their “feminist” nature. It seems the females in bonobo groups tend to form alliances for self-protection, and to maintain decorum among the males. The speaker recounted how, in one of the groups, an unruly male had attempted some aggressive behavior towards one of the females. She and her pals ganged up on the evil-doer, giving him a thorough drubbing and, in the words of the speaker, nearly tearing his scrotum completely off. Feminism was certainly vindicated by the incident, but the bonobo’s supposedly non-violent nature less so.

Be that as it may, apart from a few such rare lapses, bonobos do seem to be a great deal less violent and generally “demonic” than their close relatives, the chimpanzees. If estimates that they shared a common ancestor as recently as 1.5 to 3 million years ago are correct, it would seem to demonstrate a high degree of flexibility in the evolutionary toolkit pertaining to the innate behavioral traits that characterize humans as well as other animals. On the other hand, it may be that all these observed traits are subject to greater cultural variation within species that previously imagined. Perhaps bonobo groups can be more “demonic” than their observed behavior to date would indicate, and chimps have taken a bum rap and are really capable of more placid behavior under the right conditions.
Story Credit Here and to read about the Langurs

Sex Differences between Bonobo Apes and Chimpanzee Apes

Contrary to popular notions, our preoccupation with sex is not part of our base instincts, nor is it especially like any of the other animals. Most animals use sex exclusively for reproduction. Even bonded pairs seldom use sex for anything other than making babies.

In fact, there are only two notable species in which sex is primarily a social activity, and they’re both apes. Specifically, Homo sapiens and Pan paniscus. You know them better as humans and bonobos.

You aren’t going to see anything this intimate anywhere in the animal kingdom besides us and our close ape relatives. Besides being unique in the social use of sex, we’re also pretty close to unique in the level of intimacy we achieve. Like us, bonobos often stare deeply into each others eyes both before and during sex. We both enjoy cuddling afterward.

Go anywhere outside of this little evolutionary enclave of sexual liberation, and you’re not going to find much “self-actualization” from sex. It simply isn’t there to be found. And that’s a very important concept for us to think about. Because in evolutionary terms, our split with the bonobo was astonishingly recent, and it’s likely that we co-evolved our love of oxytocin as a social drug.
What’s that I hear you saying? I’m going too far overboard comparing us to bonobos? Chimps are closer relatives?
Well, that’s technically true… slightly. But we’re not really that much like chimps. Here’s an interesting breakdown of the sexual behaviors of chimps, humans, and bonobos:
•Human and bonobo females have sex through their whole cycle, as well as during pregnancy and lactation. Chimps do not.

•Human and bonobo females remain with their group after giving birth and show little or no fear of infanticide. Chimps are notorious baby killers, and females protect their young from the group.

•Humans and bonobos enjoy different positions as well as variety during individual acts of coitus. Both human and bonobo females tend to prefer missionary or other face-to-face sex positions. Chimps are exclusively about the doggy style.

•Bonobos and humans enjoy eye-gazing and deep kissing. Chimps do not.

•The vulva is oriented forward in bonobos and humans. It’s oriented rearward in chimps.

•Food and sex go hand in hand with bonobos and humans. Chimps are more reticent to share.

•Homosexuality is common in humans and bonobos. It’s rare in chimps.

•Humans and bonobos use sex for purely social reasons quite frequently. It’s primarily reproductive in chimps.

But I think I hear another objection. Humans don’t “naturally” go for the kind of orgiastic free-for all that bonobos enjoy? We naturally gravitate to exclusive pair bonds?
If that is so, how then do we explain the dozens of “primitive” cultures that do not subscribe to this viewpoint?
•The Aché,
•the Bari,
•the Canela,
•the Cashinahua,
•the Curripaco,
•the Ese Eja,
•the Kayapó,
•the Kulina,
•the Matis,
•the Mehinaku,
•the Piaroa,
•the Pirahã,
•the Secoya,
•the Siona,
•the Warao,
•the Yanomami,
•the Ye’kwana

This is but a small sampling of the cultures in which the “one man, one woman” concept of both sex and parenting is completely foreign. In fact, the Aché have four distinct words for “father,” and each of them is believed to be necessary for a child to be born:

•Miare: The father who put it in
•Peroare: The father who mixed it
•Momboare: The father who spilled it out
•Bykuare: The father who provided the child’s essence.

Make no mistake. These are tribal cultures, many steps closer to our “animal origins” in terms of cultural complexity. And they believe that a woman needs to have sex with at least four men for a baby to be born. There are even cultures in which not having extramarital sex is considered a sin. In many cultures, it is considered a moral failing for a man to reject sex with a woman who has already had sex with several members of the tribe. They believe that babies are built from multiple inseminations, and that without continued sex with multiple males during pregnancy, the baby will not fully form.

There is actually precious little empirical evidence that “one man, one woman, and their children” is the most “natural” way for humans to mate and reproduce. In fact, there is considerable evidence that in tribal cultures, children with multiple “fathers” are much more likely to survive childhood than those with only one. Rather than being thought of as bastards, children with many fathers are the prized possession of the tribe. If one, or two, or even five of their fathers die, there are still many men with warm parental feelings towards them.
So whence comes our preoccupation with exclusivity and monogamy? That’s a tougher question to answer, and it involves a certain amount of guesswork. But make no mistake — the facts are the facts, and our interpretation must not make light of them, nor may it brush them casually aside. The thing that makes human sexuality different from animal sexuality is precisely that we are obsessed with it, that we desire it with many different people, and that we use it for social purposes as much or more than the animals. If you want to have sex like an animal, lose your sex drive and only do it when you want a baby.
Sources:
de Waal, F. (2005) Our Inner Ape: The Best and Worst of Human Nature. London: Granta Books.
Ryan, C and Cacilda, J. (2010) Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. U.S: HarperCollins.
Information 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

Bonobo Babe, Vanga Has Passed Away, So Sad

I'm not sure if I've written much about Vanga, the little terror of the nursery, but sadly he died a few days ago. I just got this note from Pierrot, our Education Manager at the sanctuary:

'The keepers heard a noise that a bonobo had fallen hard through a tree and the branch had broken. The bonobo cried out. Vanga was gravely hurt. His Mama Yvonne took him in her arms and tried to revive him, but he died a few hours later from loss of blood.'

I've known Vanga since he basically arrived at the sanctuary when he was 2 years old. He turned from a shy, scared little bonobo into king of the nursery. No one - soldier, ambassador, nun - could go into the nursery without Vanga's permission.

I'll miss him. Here is my favorite photo of him with Mama Yvonne

Source

Bonobos, Native Only To The Democratic Republic of Congo, Face Threats Such As Poaching, Rain-forest Destruction And Years Of Civil War

Submitted By Zoological Society of Milwaukee

Posted: Nov. 24, 2009

"The first thing we had to do this trip was to evaluate the state of our research station and get an overview of what has happened here in the past year," writes the Zoological Society's Dr. Gay E. Reinartz, a bonobo conservationist working in Africa in fall and winter 2009.

You can read Dr. Reinartz's latest update from the field here: http://www.zoosociety.org/Conservation/Bonobo/BCBI/FallWinter2009/Nov24.php.

Dr. Reinartz has worked in Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo to help save the bonobo—a rare, endangered great ape--for the past 12 years. As head of the Society’s Bonobo & Congo Biodiversity Initiative, Dr. Reinartz spends almost six months each year in the Congo, where the Zoological Society has a research station called Etate.

As part of her latest trip to the field in fall and winter 2009, Dr. Reinartz will share occasional updates on the Zoological Society’s Web site.Go to http://www.zoosociety.org/Conservation/Bonobo/BCBI/FallWinter2009/ to read excerpts from e-mails shared by the Zoological Society’s field-research team. Please check back often. The Zoological Society will add updates throughout the trip.

Bonobos, native only to the Democratic Republic of Congo, face threats such as poaching, rain-forest destruction and years of civil war. From the research station in the Congo’s Salonga National Park, Dr. Reinartz and the Zoological Society:

• Survey forest in search of bonobo populations and study the ecological factors that influence bonobo distribution.

• Develop anti-poaching programs in the Salonga to protect apes, forest elephants and other endangered animals from their worst threat – poaching. BCBI trains, equips and supports park guards who patrol bonobo-rich areas and enforce laws that prohibit hunting of endangered species.

• Provide jobs, literacy education, school equipment, training, and support for agricultural cooperatives to communities living near the park so that local people have a vested interest in protecting the bonobo. These activities also reduce the people’s reliance on illegal hunting for bush meat.

• Model small-scale conservation methods that can be used throughout Congo.

Photo: Dr. Gay E. Reinartz (far left) and the research team in the Congo.

Source

Can We Stop The Bushmmeat Trade In Congo in Regards To Apes?

Is it possible to stop Congo’s massive commercial hunting before the forests are empty of animals? Maybe, and maybe it is easier than we thought.

Here is the story:

What we saw 2007 – early 2009:

During 2007 and 2008, the TL2 project inventoried intact forest — with low, or no human population — between the Tshuapa and the Lualaba Rivers. This was mainly the Lomami River basin. We were looking for bonobo, the great ape that is only in the Congo basin. What we found was “empty” forest in areas where bonobo had previously been reported. Dense bonobo populations remained only in the south, including areas where they had not been reported earlier.

There is still a lot of forest in central Congo but much has been riddled by small settlements or depleted of game by commercial hunting.

Hunting had emptied the forests to the north and west. Even further south we found that commercial hunting had moved into the last bonobo forests. We saw evidence of it everywhere. Hunting snares on the forest floor, meat drying on racks in hunting camps, bicycles loaded with meat headed towards Kindu. We even saw bonbo killed and sold as bushmeat. The southern part of our area was the most intensively hunted. It fed the busmeat markets of Kindu.

We had to understand the bushmeat trade before we could try to stop it. We have now finished a preliminary report about bushmeat in the southern TL2 (monitoring report_ nov09) which I summarize below. The actors in the bushmeat trade are :

Hunters:
Of 31 hunters “interviewed” along forest paths, more than half of them (16) were foreigners (= not the local ethnic group that “owns” the forest). Most were coming from the Province of Kasai Oriental where forests are hunted-out. Not one of the 31 was hunting for his family; they were all commercial hunters. About ¼ were using shot guns and the others were using metal and nylon snares.

Bushmeat transporters:
Monitoring bushmeat transported from the TL2 forest towards Kindu is relatively easy because all transporters have to cross the Kasuku River by dugout , and there are only three places where that is possible. As all bushmeat is carried in backpacks or bicycle-packs, transporters are easy to approach as they wait for the dugout. Who are these transporters? Rarely the hunters themselves, much more frequently these are people who buy their loads from one or several hunters in villages around the forest; these transporters are middlemen who usually sell again to the vendors in Kindu’s various markets.

Nearly 400 bushmeat transporters were contacted; 85% of the transport was by bicycle and the average load weighed 54 kilograms (119 lbs). We estimate over 30 metric tons a month of bushmeat entered Kindu from the TL2 landscape. It is likely that this makes up at least 75% of the bushmeat currently sold in Kindu (population of 135,500). In terms of animals killed: 6,300 animals a month were brought into Kindu from the TL2 forests. Of these, approximately 3,350 monkeys, 2,250 antelope and 19 (!) bonobos. If maintained, this rate would decimate the TL2 bonobos. Extrapolating to annual TL2 bushmeat on the Kindu market: 76,000 animals of which 227 are bonobos.

Market Vendors:
Whereas 91 percent of bushmeat transporting is done by men, the market vendors of bushmeat are almost all women. Of 31 market women interviewed, 11 had sold bonobo bushmeat in the last six months. These vendors are a snapshot of “making it” as a woman in DRCongo. All the vendors had children; twenty (65%) were female heads of households being widowed, unmarried or living without spouse. None of the vendors had finished high school and eight of 31 were totally unschooled.

The bushmeat market vendors and final buyers.

The Profit of the bushmeat trade:
A full bushmeat bicycle load entering Kindu is worth about 147 US dollars on retail market. Most bicycle transporters who buy from the hunter and resell in Kindu can expect to make a clear profit of over 50 dollars from a full load of meat. They may have spent as little as two weeks getting it, including bicycling to point of purchase, waiting for a full meat load, and bicycling back. The mark-up from hunter to final retail sale is on the order of 300 to 330 percent. An overall estimate gives an annual retail market value of over 980,000 US dollars for bushmeat from TL2 in Kindu.

Given this profit how can the bushmeat chain be dismantled?

We made our first attempts to “break the chain” in early 2009:

What controls could we lobby for as a small foreign-funded project?
Scouring a collection of Congolese environmental law, one decree seemed obvious: the one concerning protected species. Nationally it was against the law to kill bonobo. In Maniema no one seemed to know about it (even the governor later told us he ate bonobo). We started our campaign with meetings, brochures and radio.

Through a combination of good luck and good people we were able to push a lot farther than we had thought possible. Provincial and traditional authorities participated. There was excellent collaboration from the governor to village leaders. The mayor of Kindu campaigned, the provincial minister of the environment campaigned, the chefitaine of the Bangengele campaigned and so did the deputies of Kailo and many more.

The governor declared a three month no-hunting season from July through September 2009 – there was at least 90% compliance. The bushmeat market in Kindu closed down and bicycles started transporting goats and chickens rather than bushmeat.

In August 2009, this bicycle transporter headed for Kindu has a goat, chickens and rice, all on two wheels.

Once the hunting season came to an end, the authorities began to campaign for a protected area in the most sensitive bonobo forest. And so far they have truly done so with enthusiasm.

There are three reasons that I can think of that led people to support the conservation message:
In villages – villagers knew that their animal populations were decreasing as they had to walk farther and farther to reach good hunting ground.
In villages – villagers also realized other people were reaping benefits from hunting “their” animals, but their own problems (no schools, no health care) were not improving.
In Kindu, – the politicians decided a national park might bring outside money to what was otherwise an extremely impoverished region.

What is next?
This is a short, hopeful chronology, but the antecedents aren’t promising. The bonobo forest was emptied to the north; the bonobo forest was emptied to the west. Maybe this chronology can be hopeful only because it is so short. –?

A word of caution:
There was one critical element missing during the closed hunting season – that was enforcement. People stopped transporting bushmeat because of the publicity and monitoring, but a few hunters –mostly foreign –continued, and stocked their meat. They weren’t punished. In fact, there is no real enforcement capacity. That does not bode well for the next no-hunting season.

How to succeed?
The strong collaboration that pushed the no-hunting season, publicized protected species, and cleared the forests – at least briefly – of snares and cartridges must persist. With that support, bonobos, too, can persist. We must maintain and strengthen this alliance of authorities, villagers and our TL2 project in order to assure creation of a protected area in the bonobo forest where bonobos can continue to live in all the raucous din of a forest alive with animals.

This is how the bushmeat chain looks through photos.

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Ian Redmond Speaks About The Importance of Preserving Ape Populations

Field biologist Ian Redmond speaks about the importance of perserving the gorilla population on Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at Miyhalo Hall. Photo by Ron Fu/Daily Titan Staff Photographer

Ian Redmond, a tropical field biologist and conservationist, spoke as “The Official Year of the Gorilla Ambassador” about the dangers of decreasing ape populations at a presentation hosted by the Department of Anthropology on Thursday.

Several hundred students filled a lecture room at 5 p.m. in Mihaylo Hall, lining the walls and sitting on the floor, to hear Redmond speak about the importance of ape conservation and their impact on the world. Redmond’s presentation was titled, “Save the Gorillas to Save the World.”

As ambassador for “The Year of the Gorilla” campaign, Redmond travels the world, talking with politicians and groups to promote the conservation of gorillas and to gather funds for the rescue effort.

Redmond spoke for over an hour, explaining why gorillas deserve to be protected and detailing their impact, both currently and if they become extinct, on the world. Redmond said gorillas should be saved because of their economic benefits, their historical connection to humans, their natural beauty and their ethical right to live.

He talked about his own experiences working with gorillas in Africa, showing videos of gorillas in the wild and describing the people he met and the cultures he experienced.

According to Redmond, by 2030, only 10 percent of great ape habitats will remain free of the impacts of human development in Africa. Only 1 percent of orangutans will avoid the same impacts in Southeast Asia. Gorilla populations have had some recovery successes, but their numbers continue to drastically decrease.

“It’s a very fragile recovery, and I think it’s something we have to pay a lot of attention to,” Redmond said.

Dr. Peter Fashing, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, specializes in the behavior, ecology and conservation of wild nonhuman primates and is a co-sponsor of Redmond’s talk. Fashing believes the loss of gorillas would negatively impact the history of humanity.

“Along with the chimpanzee and the bonobo, gorillas are one of our three closest living relatives, “ Fashing stated in an e-mail interview. “What we learn from studies of gorillas helps us to better understand our shared primate past. Thus, losing a branch of the human family tree, especially one as magnificent and awe-inspiring as the gorilla, would be a tragedy for humanity.”

Fashing also said the end of the gorilla species would alter entire habitats, potentially contributing to global warming and would cause a drop in tourism revenues for countries that rely on gorilla ecotourism.

Redmond said that gorilla populations in West Africa are threatened by human destruction of their rain forest habitats, outbreaks of the Ebola virus and the bushmeat trade, where hunters kill gorillas and other forest wildlife as a source of food for humans.

Students listen as Redmond speaks on gorillas' behalf. Photo by Ron Fu/Daily Titan Staff Photographer

Dr. Raffaela Commitante, an anthropology professor who specializes in orangutan conservation, heard about the talk from her anthropology connections. Commitante said that the extinction of apes would throw off the balance of natural systems.

“Once extinctions start happening, you just don’t know how that’s going to snowball into mass extinctions of more and more primates, and we’re part of that order,” Commitante said.

Despite the threats apes face, Commitante maintains hope that the species can be saved.

“We all work towards better awareness and better conservation of these endangered species,” Commitante added.

Redmond explained that gorillas are essential to the survival of ecosystems in their home countries.

Gorillas fertilize and disperse seeds through their dung, which regenerates the forests.

They also bring in a huge source of revenue through ecotourism. According to the Uganda Wildlife Authority, gorillas brought 20,000 visitors and $300 million to the country in 2007.

Gorillas also impact global warming. Protecting gorilla habitats preserves forests, which in turn decreases the amount of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere from a reduced number of trees and the harvesting process.

Redmond concluded his talk by stating primates are keystone species in habitats that provide ecosystem services for the whole planet. Saving the gorillas will preserve ecosystems that directly determine human survival. Redmond also said the conservation effort begins with each of us.

Students responded to Redmond’s presentation with enthusiastic applause.

Ericka Roman, a third-year anthropology major, said the talk was interesting. She expected to be overwhelmed by scientific terminology but found it directed toward the general public.

Ashley Deluca, a third-year mechanical engineering major, attended the talk for her anthropology class and found the presentation inspiring.

“It really sheds a light on … what actually is happening in the world right now, and that it is an issue today,” Deluca said. “Even though it’s happening far away, it does affect us.”

For more information on “The Year of the Gorilla” conservation campaign, visit YoG2009.org.

Greg Lehman contributed to this report.

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