Lola ya Bonobo

after a successful trip into the depths of the Congo wilderness, Claudine is home. all the bonobos were happy to see her and brought their babies to show her and catch up on all the news.

Lukuru especially was ready with hugs and kisses.

i’m back from congo now, and i wanted to say a big thank you to sheryl b, lukuru’s mom, who has been helping me upload blog posts for the last six weeks. the line in congo is like, super slow, the internet breaking for days, and sheryl was just wonderful, helping me upload the posts and keeping everyone informed during the flu crisis.

what makes it even more touching is that sheryl’s dog, mina, is very sick. i lost a dog a few years ago and i remember how tough it was. so if everyone could send sheryl mental hugs, i’m sure she would appreciate them.

here, s, lukuru sends hugs:

We brought three bottles of vitamins in the shape of animals for the babies – little did I know how much we would need them!!! Here is Sandoa eating one in the shape of a dinosaur, but she’s pretty much licked him into an oval …

We still need donations for bonobo food – please help if you can. www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm or lolayabonobo.wildlifedirect.org

Last year, www.bonobos.com became one of our corporate sponsors. In case any body hasn’t heard of them, they make the most stylish pants around. The first pair of pants I’ve bought Brian that actually fit!
 Bonobos.com T-shirt

Sake peeping out from Brian’s legs

Kata reaching into Brian’s Bonobos pants pocket

OK adopted moms out there, here is Lukuru eating one of Brian’s experiment apples. They cost $6 each, so you can imagine how thrilled he was about it … but I didn’t care – I was giving everyone apples to help them with the vitamins!!

We still need donations for bonobo food – please help if you can. www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm or lolayabonobo.wildlifedirect.org

We are roaring along on our food donations and are now up to a total of $11,348 for the $33,000 short fall. We’ve also had some larger sponsorships, so I’ll send those through shortly!

Thank you to Stuart L., who donated $150, Our WLD faithful blog follower Dina C. who donated $140, Wendy B., Francis B., Stephani A., Lee Shane, Elizabeth Burston, and Robin Zimmerman who all donated up to $50 and finally to David Bendelman who adopted Lomela on behalf of Polina Labovskaia. You’re all wonderful, thank you.

Wow, more than $11,000 in three weeks – and to think that at our Friends of Bonobos board meeting last july, we only had eight people who had sponsored bonobos!!! Thank you all so much. More update on the food situation soon. Hopefully Lomela won’t have to go without bananas!!

Lisala was one of the bonbos who was very sick; they pulled her out of group 3 when they saw she couldn’t breathe, and brought her to the vet block. She was another one of the bonobos we have known since she was small. So every day I would drive Anne Marie, the vet, nuts by asking her about 50 times about Lisala. She was on oxygen for a while, her breathing was so constricted.

But she made it and Brian figured while she was in the building all day he’d use her for the test. The test is whether Kasongo would open a door using a bonobo key to let Lisala in to share food with him. Most scientists think that only humans will give something in exchange for nothing (altruism) but Brian has an inkling bonobos might do it.

Alas for the Kasongo/Lisala trial, Kasongo unlocked the door and let Lisala in, she went straight for the food and pushed her bottom in the air so Kasongo could have sex with her while she ate all the food. I’m not sure if that’s altruism. Sounds more like my study, food for sex …

We still need more than $20,000 for bonobo food – please help if you can. www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm or lolayabonobo.wildlifedirect.org

Just like in humans, the flu is most dangerous for little babies. Semendwa’s baby was too young to make it, he got sick too quick, but Claudine and the vet Marie Laure did manage to save Chi Chi’s baby, Moyi, who is hanging on to Mama Henriette below. it is always a tough choice to take a baby, you have to anesthetise the mother first which is traumatic and can be dangerous. But Moyi ended up being a happy story, he came from his mom for two nights and slept with Suzy, keeping her up all night long. Then after two days, Claudine brought him back to the enclosure, he squealed when he saw his mom, ran and gave her a big hug … then he ran BACK to Claudine, waiting to go back to the fun place where he got all those yummy treats!!

But Chi Chi held him close. She was so happy to see him, she was hugging and kissing him, I cried (for everyone who’s wondering, I actually do not cry every day willy nilly).

And something special; when Moyi was away, we went to Chi Chi’s enclosure to try and find some sugar cane for him to eat. I saw Chi Chi, she was sitting huddled over, looking really sad. When she saw me, she came over to the fence, looking hard at me as though I might be hiding her baby in my pocket.

I said, “Chi Chi, I just need some sugar cane for Moyi, can you see any?”

Then she handed me a big juicy chunk right through the fence. I know, as a scientist, you can’t make any conclusions, especially since if Chi Chi speaks anything, she speaks French, not English, but I took the sugar cane back to Moyi and said his mom sent it to him with hugs and kisses, just in case he could understand.

We still need another $20,000 for bonobo food – please help if you can: www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm or lolayabonobo.wildlifedirect.org.

We’re grateful to all the following media outlets who covered the story:

• Robert Crilly who covered it for the UK Times
• Carl Zimmer who ran it on his very popular Discover blog, The Loom
• New Scientist
• and my BFF in Durham, Sheril.

Have to be honest, I haven’t been sleeping. Now the flu is over, I was going to just move on and keep going but it never happened. In the middle of the day I just start tearing up for no reason. Then there are my obsessive walks, pacing the sanctuary peering into everybody’s faces to make sure there is no sign of a rerun. There isn’t. But Brian, tired of all my tossing and turning and keeping him awake, suggested I concentrate on the bonobos saved by the amazing staff here. Promise I will move on soon, but I hope you won’t mind me sharing a few stories.

During the crisis: Kikongo, the bonobo our student Suzy rescued in the middle of the night, is convalescing in the nursery. He is about 8 years old now, and usually in with the juveniles. After scaring us to death for two days – he was face down in the forest when Suzy found him, and she had to carry him to the vet block on her back – he spent another 48 hours being treated with oxygen while he gasped for breath. Anyway, the mamas are now keeping a close eye on him while he is in with the little ones.

It was like one of the cool high school kids just turned up at preschool – all the babies were following him around like he was a rock star, and even Kata, who won’t say ‘boo’ to a fly, couldn’t stop offering her swelling. That’s her pushing her bottom in Kikongo’s face. Kikongo was living it up, having sex with everyone and stealing all the milk – because he is a full head taller than everyone else.

Kata and Kikongo