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.
Finally, we’re at Lola! Thank god. Crossing the river was not as easy as I remember. In fact, can I offer some advice to anyone thinking of taking the boat from Brazzaville to Kinshasa - do not take 18 bags of luggage. Especially if you are only 5 poeple and therefore only have 10 hands. The weirdest thing I saw was on the other side while we were getting hassled by customs (what IS in all those bags, madam?) was about 20 handicapped people coming through in a line with boxes strapped all over their bodies. There were blind people, people in wheel chairs, people with no legs getting carried, and all of them looked like suicide bombers with packets of whatever stuffed under their tshirts. It turns out handicapped people are not taxed when they bring goods from one country to the other, so importers hire them to carry their stuff. crazy. Here are the two newest bonobos - lukuru who is the smallest bonobo I have ever seen. She is only 18 months old and it’s a miracle she’s alive.
This one is Masisi, who is worryingly thin. I haven’t had a chance to chat with the vet about the prospects of these two but will hopefully do by tommorrow.
The educational activities of the ABC reached more than 16, 500 children and adults last year. The majority were young Congolese students, targeted within the framework of the scholastic education program, but activities with environmental workers, primarily in the provinces, were also numerous this year. The initiative for these activities comes mostly from Pierrot Mbonzo, the educational coordinator of the ABC. A new educator-guide, Blaise Mbwaki, has been recruited this year to help expand these activities. He arranges regular school visits to the Sanctuary, when he’s not out in the field with Pierrot.
After several years of research, a site with the criteria for a successful release (a space of 40,000 hectares of primary tropical forest - native bonobo habitat) has been selected near Basankusu (in Equateur province). This site – which we are calling Ekolo ya bonobo (The Land of the Bonobos) – will be the world’s first bonobo release site. Since the middle of the year, numerous contacts have been established with the local population (the Pô Group) in order to educate them about the return of the bonobos to their former habitat. Of course, contacts have also been maintained with the administrative authorities of the region. We benefit greatly from the expertise of the AWF (African Wildlife Foundation), an American environmental organization, active in this region since 2004 when it founded the ’ Maringa-Lopori -Wamba Landscape», and when in 2006, it created the « Natural Reserve of Lomako » with its partner, the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN). The outstanding sensibilisation work realized by the AWF among the local populations throughout the entire region has helped us immensely to establish our contacts. The awareness campaigns and the mobilization of the local populations and other concerned groups have been placed in the hands of Pierrot Mbonzo, coordinator of the ABC educational programs. An action plan for 2008 has been developed, together with the AWF and its director for the DRC, Jeff Dupain. The most important stages are: · Active mapping and geo-referencing of the site · In-depth research into the local flora and fauna of the region, in particular the identification of local seeds and nuts for the biodiversity · A series of workshops to analyze information and distribute it to local communities and provincial officials During this period, at Lola ya Bonobo, Crispin Mahamba and the Sanctuary’s health team were also busy. Since April, the medical analyses recommended by the « Guidelines on Reintroduction » of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have been continuing – including discovering genetic data, making pathological and virological tests, and giving vaccinations. The ABC’ staff has been supported by a team of veterinarians and scientific wildlife experts: veterinarians Nick de Souza (African Director of the World Society of the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and a big bonobo fan), Michel Hallbwax, and Laurence Provot; Anne Fischer, geneticist of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI – EVAN), responsible for generating the genotypes of our bonobos; and our friend Brian Hare, director of the « 3 Chimps Project», in charge of psychological testing. We have received very positive cooperation from all the services of the Congolese government, who are convinced of the importance of our work. Under the supervision of the Ministry of the Environment, the Direction of Wildlife Resources of the DRC helped us to acquire quickly those documents necessary for the export of specimens. The Congolese Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) supplied us with technical support for the preservation of these specimens. The ABC also received assistance from the INRB for the necessary bacteriological studies. The technical preparations for the reintroduction of rehabilitated bonobos, made possible by the WSPA, USFWS and MPI, will continue in 2008: we are planning the bonobo reintroduction for May or June 2009…
Hi everyone, For those who don’t know me, my name is Vanessa, and I study bonobos at Duke University. I’m also on the Board for Friends of Bonobos, and so I run this blog and help out wherever I can. One of the biggest perks of my job is that I go to Lola at least once a year. I am unabashadly in love with bonobos, they are the funnest creatures ever so I hope you don’t mind me sharing some of our research findings with you while I’m there. First things first, I’ll be updating you with what’s been happening at the sanctuary over the next few days - 10 days to be exact - we arrive at Lola on July 4! The Sanctuary has welcomed five new orphans this year, two from the province of Equateur (Boyoma et Eleke) and three from Lodja in the province of Kasai Oriental (Sake, Lomela and Katako Kombe). This was the first time we received bonobos from this province.
Having heard from a local NGO that a large number of orphaned bonobos were located in Kasai Oriental, the Sanctuary’s educators, Pierrot and Blaise, went to Lodja in August, accompanied by Anne-Marie, our nurse, to recuperate the infant bonobos and to launch an awareness educational campaign. There they found a catastrophic situation: bushmeat – including monkeys and bonobos- is considered a delicacy!
Just got back from the Friends of Bonobos board meeting in DC. The Jane Goodall Institute hosted us in their beautiful offices, for which we were very grateful. Our main issue for this year is that we only had eight adoptions last year! Not including the Wildlife Direct donations - which have raised over $3,000 in the last six months. We’re chalking the low adoption numbers up to the fact that all of us are volunteers with day jobs so we haven’t been able to dedicate the time to pushing bonobos - and in the US, hardly any one has heard of them anyway. But this year should be better, if only because it’s so much easier now on our NEW website!! check it out, www.friendsofbonobos.org It’s been a year in the revamping process and the best thing is that now you can adopt a bonobo with the click of a button on the How to Help page. Hopefully this should get the adoption numbers higher!
Your two best girls, Lomela and Kata are there, so if you don’t donate already to Wildlife Direct - adopt a bonobo!
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