She certaintly lives up to her reputation: she is the fastest when it comes to solving Tori’s tests; what would take her class mates a lot of brain power is a piece of cake to her. At the moment her favourite game is to undo buttons. And once she’s finished opening up your pockets she’ll gently grab your hands and place them on top the button so that you can button up and she can start all over again. Not only is Saké smart, she is also very affectionate. If she can find some water she’ll splash it all over you and start scrubbing your arms in the same way she gets scrubbed by the Mamas in the morning. And the best thing of all is that her favourite place to sit is right on top of your head!
Guess who ran up to our house this morning? Lolo! She had just finished having a bath and smelled like coconut oil. She escaped the mamas walking her to the forest, ran to our porch and started sniffing around as if to say, ‘what do you guys eat for breakfast around here?’ Mama Micheline gave her the warning ‘Lomela!’ read ‘you’re in trouble’. So she jumped into my arms. My goodness she is heavier than the little stick insect of last year. It’s like she quintupled in size.
Then I did. Just look at that tummy.
I don’t know how, but Kata has always got this crinkly expression on her face. The mamas call her La Vielle, ‘the old woman’ because she just has this way of scrunching up her face like she can’t see properly.
I still love her, even though she pulls my hair and jumps up and down on my lap, not registering that she is not the little chiuahua sized skeleton she was last year but a rather large and heavy four year old. Her BFF in the nursery is usually Eleke, but Tory took Eleke away for testing, and so today she is substituting Vanga, Le petit Chef, or ‘the little chief’, and yes in reply to one of your comments, he does bite humans as much as he bites other bonobos so I suppose it is very democratic of him.
He even groomed her hair with a decoration which happened to be a piece of toilet paper. Imagine.
Introducing Massisi, who some of you have adopted already. She is Kataco’s size when Kata arrived last year. Fluffy, but under all that hair she is really skinny. She has already been here a month and a half, so I think the worst is over, and hopefully she’ll make it.
She is still too weak to do much, she stays on her mama Yvonne most of the day without moving except to eat. She is very trusting though, and holds her hand out whenever someone new comes near.
Massisi is one of Lola’s success stories. One of our employees at Basankusu where the bonobos will be released next year, went home to his village and found one of his people with Massisi in the backyard. He told the villager that it was forbidden to have bonobos, and that bonobos are a protected species, endemic to Congo. Ashamed, the villager handed Massisi over without protest, and now she is at Lola.
She has large sorrowful eyes, but they are not despairing. If she can stay healthy (she is too thin now to survive a serious illness) she will grow big like Lomela.
Here she is, next to Eleke. You can see how tiny she is.
This is little baby Lukuru sitting on Mama Henriëtte’s lap. She has to wear a little cardigan because she is not used to the weather in Kinshasa; she origionally comes from May Ndombe (which means ‘black water’ in Lingala)-a little village close to the equator. She was taken to Kinshasa by a bush meat trader. The trader thought her niece, Sandra, would want Lukuru as a pet, because Sandra had allways been very interested in wildlife. Luckily Sandra was a smart girl and knew the right thing to do, and so had her aunt get in touch with Lola ya Bonobo. Lukuru has been here ever since!
This is Waka; she might be tiny but she sure is smart! She’s about 3 years old and allready doing excellently in the games Tory has asked her to play. Besides this she has funny whiskers sprouting out around her little red lips. Waka is very a very curious little monster, she wants to know what is in every pocket or bag you might be carrying. She is very determined about this, so she can spend ages prodding at a button or figuring out a complicated zipper, but all her hard work pays of in the end which usually means you lose your keys, but Waka does not mean any harm by doing this. Actually she’s really sweet! She will often take you by your hand and lead you between the trees, as if she is giving you a grand tour of her home.
Everyone who was asking for pictures of Lomela – here she is! She has so much hair, I didn’t even recognise her. That thin little fuzz she had before I left is now shiny and luxurious, thanks to the mamas coating her with coconut oil. She even smells good! She is also the sweetest bonobo ever. Today I was sitting in the nursery and she came to touch my knee very gently with her mouth. It was a stark contrast to Eleke, who was leaping from my head, and Sake, who demanded I tickle her or she would bite me. Lovingly of course.
I had to wait until Tory was testing Vanga out of the nursery before I could go inside. It took a while for Lomela to come over. She is so big now, I think she must be 4 or 5 years old. When I saw her last year she looked 2 because she was so malnourished. Eventually she came over and instead of jumping on my lap and pulling my hair like everyone else, she just stood very calmly with her hand on my leg and looked into my eyes.
I think she was trying to recognise me. It’s been a long time, for a young bonobo anyway, since I was here last October, but I spent so much time with her and Kata, I think at least she recognised my hair which is different to the mamas’.
I’ll take more photos for all you lolo fans later. But I want to catch some of the other babies in the nursery.
You’ve probably heard of Sara Gruen, who wrote the New York Times Bestseller Water for Elephants. When I bought it at Borders, everyone from the manager to the cashier saw it in my hand and just had to blurt out ‘that’s an amazing book’. And it is. I just finished reading it and it was wonderfully moving, funny, and poignant at the same time. I even cried and I never cry when I read. We’re terribly excited because her next book will be about bonobos! Not only that, but Sara has sponsored over 30 bonobos – half the sanctuary! Thanks to her wonderful generosity, we have over four times the adoptions of all of last year. So all you bonobo fans, make sure you buy her next book, I think it will be called Ape House. And while you’re at it, if you haven’t already, buy Water for Elephants. It is the best book I have read all year. And we can proudly say that part of the proceeds goes to us!
Guess who’s now running with the big boys now - Boyoma! The little terror of the nursery has been moved in with the big bonobos in enclosure two. I’m totally ecstatic because he bit me last year. Here he is, don’t you love that little angelic face?
But then I took this one which shows he’s still the same Boyoma.
Now the terror of the nursery is Vanga. Can’t believe it. Dear little sweet Vanga who I have known since he was the size of a kitten is now running around terrorizing people. I don’t know why the oldest ones in the nursery always bite. Probably a dominance struggle.
Here is the malnourished little bonobo from last year, Kataco, the one who nearly died because she wouldn’t drink any milk. Now she is quite the little madam, just look at that pout.
So as you can see she is totally adorable. Even if she is given to throwing tantrums. Today I saw one of my most favourite bonobo behaviours - peering. It’s when one bonobo wants some food, and they look very intently at them. Chimps actually try and take the food out of the mouth of the chimp whose got the food. Bonobos do it more politely, but I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to eat with someone staring at you, but it’s very disconcerting. It would work on me for sure.
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