Lola Ya Bonobo

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 12 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

Etumbe is the sweetest female I know. She is 23 years old which is full grown and oneday i went walking int eh forest with her and she just held my hand and groomed me. it was such a beautiful moment. she will be the group’s female leader. Here she is with her baby mbano.

we were at lola the year she gave birth. it was Lola’ very first baby and it was so exciting! all the other bonobos werecrowing around and wanted to see the baby, they were SO excited.

now etumbe gets to raise her baby in the wild where she came from. Etumbe spent years with keza in a biomedical facility in kinshasa and it was many years before she even saw grass. i think someone wanted to know how keza ended up in the facility. i’m not sure. they were either captured or rescued fro teh wild then used in various tests, or not, i’m not sure. but they spent years in tiny cages before they finally saw the big forests at Lola and now they have an even bigger forest at Ekolo - the release site!!

ps. it’s my birthday today:)

6 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 11 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

before i start talking about bonobos, i should tell you what’s goign to happen. ok so on the 14th, a special plane with all the seats taken out will fly the first group of 9 bonobos to basankusu, it’s about a 2 hour flight. then they get unloaded and driven to the reelase site with all the vets on hand. They’ll be knocked out with anathesia, and i can’t wait to hear what they look like when they see their big new forest before them!

No responses yet

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 10 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

lomami was the saddest bonobo i ever saw. in 2005, he had just arrived at the sanctuary. all the fingers on his right hand had beencut off, some of them at different times. basically someone locked him up in a cage, cut off a finger, came back a few days later, cut off another one.

claudine was sure he would die. he didnt play with other bonobos. he was afraid of all people. he didn’t want to be picked up or carried. he was so unbelievably traumatised that he would sit alone, hug himself and rock.

now he is surrounded by friends. he spends a lot of time grooming with other bonobos, and they all love him. he still doesn’t trust people, not suprisingly, so he is a great canditate for release. i’m so glad his story has a happy ending!

5 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 10 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

wow - i can’t believe it’s here already- the first group of bonobos will be released on June 14 - in two days! Over the next few weeks i think it’s going to be hard to get news from the field so every day i’m going to write about the bonobos who will be released and a little bit about their personalities. wish them well! this is the world’s first bonobo release and what we accomplish here is really important.

One response so far

Category: bonobos | Date: Jun 06 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

keza was one of the bonobos in a biomedical laboratory. he had never seen grass before he came to Lola. this is his favourite expression

Tags: bonbos in biomedical labs, keza

2 responses so far

Category: bonobos | Date: Jun 05 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

guylaine took this photo of kubulu - can you tell it’s the rainy season? he’s having a bit of a mud bath. i think he’ll be clean by 2010

Tags: bonobo mudbath, kubulu

3 responses so far

Category: bonobos | Date: Jun 04 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

Manono, the adult male LOVES Claudine. he goes bonkers every time he sees her. Here he’s giving her a smooch through the fence. no doubt if the fence wasn’t there he would have leapt into her lap

Tags: manono, manono smooching claudine

No responses yet

Category: bonobos | Date: Jun 03 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

god knows how guylaine got this photo - Lomela is so hard to snap shot! But here she is looking beautiful and pensive.

Tags: lolo looking pensive, lomela

2 responses so far

Category: bonobos | Date: Jun 02 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

nothing more to say, really …

Tags: sandoa looking cute

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 01 2009 | By: lolayabonobo

Last week I got an email from a friend of mine, Sheril Kirschenbaum, who runs a very popular blog called The intersection.

She wrote

‘I invite you to join a very important blogospheric initiative called SILENCE IS THE ENEMY starting June 1st to help a generation of young women half a world away .  Why?  Because they are our sisters and children–the victims of sexual abuse who don’t have the means to ask for help.  We have power in our words and influence. Along with our audience, we’re able to speak for them.  I’m asking all of you use your platform to call for an end to the rape and abuse of women and girls .’

I have a vested interest in this because we work in Congo, where some of the worst abuses towards women have taken place.

So every Monday, I will be posting on what is happening. I’m warning you, it’s disturbing. And what does it have to do with bonobo protection? Rape destroys women who hold the fabric of their society together. The slaughter of bonobos will not stop until women feel safe enough to go to the fields, providing enough food for their families.

The fate of bonobos and the Congolese are inextricably linked. The other bloggers and I just want to bring it to your attention that this is going on. These women and girls deserve to be acknowleged. I’m encouraging everyone to support Heal Africa, and NGO who runs a hospital where some of the worst abuses are taking place.

One response so far