Lola Ya Bonobo

Category: bonobos | Date: Oct 31 2007 | By: admin

Well, the beautiful job Vet Crispin did on Dilolo’s stitches didn’t do much good.

He absolutely hated being alone in the isolation enclosure and so somehow vaulted the electric fence to be with his friends. As soon as his buddies saw the stitches, they picked them all out, neat as budding doctors.

Crispin isolated Dilolo again, and luckily there were still two stitches left! Dilolo stayed put until Saturday when he was allowed back into the forest with his friends. The scar is healing nicely, and Dilolo, as you can see, is fine.

6 responses so far

Category: lomela | Date: Oct 28 2007 | By: admin

Our two little girls are doing well. Lomela especially is covered in a fine layer of downy hair. You can’t see it from the photos, but in a few weeks you’ll see she’s on her way to becoming a beautiful little bonobo.

Both Kata and Lomela had a few hours in the nursery the other day, just to get them used to having other kids around. Lomela was fine, she just ate while the other little ones pulled on her arm and g-g rubbed her (genital - genital rubbing for those who aren’t familiar with the bonobo handshake:), but Kata found it a little stressful. You can see Lomela looking out at the others playing, stuffing her little face with a mango, but Kata clung to Mama Henriette the whole time.

She’s still so thin and tiny under all that hair. Then Boyoma, are boistrous three year old boy, who isn’t above sinking his little fangs into my trousers when I get too close to his Mama Micheline, yanked Kata’s arm a little too hard and she screamed at him angrily and buried herself in Mama Henriette’s bosom. This is Boyoma, the little terror.

So it will still be a little while before Kata is ready for the nursery full time, and Lomela will keep her company until she is strong enough.

9 responses so far

Category: bonobos | Date: Oct 18 2007 | By: admin

This is Dilolo. He absolutely beautiful but he is also a total punk, running around group three terrorising everyone. Every time I come to see group three, which has all the juveniles in it, Dilolo throws dirt at me.

But the other day he fell from a tree and a branch speared through his leg. Crispin the vet had to come and stitch it up and Dilolo had to stay in the isolation enclosure.

I have never seen such a sook! Seriously, it completely surprises me how depressed bonobos can get. Dilolo was lying on the ground barely moving and Jean Claude had to come in and give him a hug.

9 responses so far

Category: kata | Date: Oct 13 2007 | By: admin

Kata drank today!! it was amazing. she’s drunk nothing for weeks. We had to dip sugar cane in milk and feed her drop by drop. A couple more days and she would be dead. Then she woke up this morning and drank a whole bottle full of milk!! It was like she suddenly decided she would live and now here she is, eating, drinking and putting weight back on her skinny little bones. I was so happy I almost started crying.

Now Lomela has her amoeba and is sick, but Mama Henriette says Lomela can afford to lose a little weight because she eats and drinks all day long.

16 responses so far

Category: kata | Date: Oct 10 2007 | By: admin

Kataco isn’t doing so well. She has amoebas. She doesn’t drink and she’s so dehydrated that her skin is hanging off her body.

It was so bad Crispin the vet had to give her an IV drip. The needle was gigantic. I nearly passed out just looking at it. It must have hurt so much but she barely whimpered.

Anne marie had to force feed her medicine for her amoebas.

I hope she doesn’t die. But she will if she doesn’t drink soon.

Claudine says Kataco is sad, very sad.

Sometimes, she says, bonobos die because they just don’t want to live any more. I cried in the toilet and spent an hour watching group one play in the fading sunlight

12 responses so far

Category: kata | Date: Oct 04 2007 | By: admin

The test results have come back from the lab and it turns out both Lomela and Kata are fine. Kata has a minor protein deficiency, but this should improve as she drinks more milk and eats more food like eggs.

I tried to get a photo of Lomela and Kata in their sleeping closure like some of you asked me too, but what with the flash and the grill I just couldn’t do it. But I took this one for you instead.

They are good little buddies, although most of the time they look like this

Because they just love eating. Especially Lomela. Mama Henriette likes to sing ‘Lomela, mange, peepee, caca’ , which means ‘eat, pee, and poop’, because that’s basically all she does. But if you look down the blog on what she used to look like, you can see how far she’s come. Her chest has filled out, her arms have a little bit of muscles, and today i saw the tiniest coat of short, fine hair. She is going to be the most beautiful bonobo in no time.

Besides the food, what she needs, of course, is a lot of love. All the mamas here are going to make sure she gets it.

13 responses so far