World's first bonobo release: At home in the forest
Jun 19, 2009
© Vanessa Woods
WSPA has been following nine lucky bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as a team from the Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary, led by WSPA’s Nick D’Souza, release them back into the wild. It’s been a while since our last update, but that’s because Nick and the team have been kept busy in the ‘unreachable’ part of the forest. Here’s the latest from Nick…
"All the bonobos are now in the forest – outside the holding pen, roaming around in the wild quite confidently. They’ve been out for three nights and are not at all nervous anymore. They’ve started finding food for themselves, eating off the many succulents and fruits growing in this swampy forest.
They’re especially fond of a type of succulent called ‘elephant’s ear', but of course, their diet is being supplemented by bananas, oranges and other fruit being fed to them in the enclosure. Feeding them only in the enclosure is a good ploy, since it means that they will return to the holding pen whenever they need to be rounded up, which means they will be better managed accordingly."
The outlook for the bonobos
© Vanessa Woods
"In the weeks/months ahead, the greatest challenge is going to be managing the relationship between the local population and the bonobos. But the education program that has been running there for well over a year is certainly going a long way to help.
The sanctuary program maintains constant contact with the local chiefs, and also supports schools in the local areas – and it’s an interesting aside to hear what they consider a ‘local’ school… the children have to travel 1.5 hours downriver every morning, starting at 5am and taking a canoe to school, and then taking a canoe back home at the end of the school day – except it takes them a whole 2.5 hours on the way back home, since they’re now travelling upstream!
It takes $1 per child just to get them to school, so it often comes down to a hard decision as parents are forced to choose which of their children they’re able to afford to educate. In a situation like this, the support of the bonobo program is very welcome, as one can imagine.
We’re also hoping that the bonobos will quickly get used to the team of 12 male trackers that will be responsible for monitoring their situation in the coming weeks. We’re all wondering how they will react to the 12 males, since bonobos are feminists extraordinaire!
They are quite a female dominated society themselves and take far longer to accept unfamiliar men than unfamiliar women! Claudine will be staying on in the reintroduction area for as long as a month, to make sure that all goes well.”
-Nick D’Souza
Meet the bonobos
© Vanessa Woods
Are you curious about the names and history of the nine bonobos? They are Etumbe, Mbano, Lukaya, Lisala, Lomela, Max, Beni and Lomami. Over the next few days we’ll tell you more about them…
Etumbe & Mbano – Etumbe is Mbano’s mother, and she gave birth to Mbano at the Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary. She and Mbano are being released together. Etumbe is also pregnant, and will give birth to her next baby in the wild.
Kubulu – He’s a mischievous bonobo, renowned for stealing sugar.
We hope you’re enjoying the updates, and that you keep following WSPA and the dedicated team from the Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary as this amazing journey continues. There will be more updates, and please also visit the Lola Ya Bonobo blog for news.
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