Baby Bonobo Love

Tristan and I are the proud foster parents of a one-and-a-half year old Bonobo orphan. How did this happen? What exactly is a Bonobo you say?  

Bonobos are one of the four great apes, the others being gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and, well us. Ok, five. Chimpanzees are famously known as human’s closest relative however, bonobos also share this claim to fame. Interestingly bonobos and chimpanzees are genetically closer to us than they are to gorillas. Originally bonobos were thought to be a subspecies of chimpanzees, and were called pygmy chimpanzees, but it was determined in 1954 that they were indeed a separate species. Similar in stature and appearance at first glance, there are actually a lot of differences between bonobos and chimpanzees. Chimpanzees can be quite fierce and are known to fight to the death, while Bonobos are, um, more friendly (more on this later). Another huge difference is their geographic location. Chimpanzees are found in many countries in central and western Africa and their population is thought to be as large as 300,000. Bonobos, however, are only found north of the Kasai river and south of the Congo river in the forests of the Congo river basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; an area about three times the size of France. Tristan and I live smack dab in the middle of their restricted habitat.

Bonobo Habitat in the Congo Basin

Most of us believe humans are the most intelligent animals on earth, but there is one problem we have not been unable to overcome. We have not figured out how to avoid murder, war and bloodshed. We share this trait with our other closest relative, chimpanzees. Bonobos are the only great apes that have never been seen to kill their own kind. If we can figure out their secret, we might be able to make our greatest accomplishment – world peace. Researchers have discovered that the main reason bonobos are so peaceful is that males are not in charge. The dominant bonobo in any group is never a male. If a bonobo is acting violently the females will band together and prevent him from hurting anyone. Over time bonobos have evolved to be unaggressive and peaceful. Another related fact that reduces and solves conflicts in bonobos is that of hormone release. In humans and other apes a conflict situation will increase testosterone levels which is related to competitiveness. In bonobos the same type of situation leads to an increase in cortisol which is related to stress. This stress response leads bonobos to seek social reassurance and they hug and share instead of fight (paragraph copied from Friends of Bonobos). 

Bonobos are listed as endangered on the IUCN red list of endangered species. It is very difficult to estimate their numbers in the wild, it could be as low as 5,000 but may be as much as 30,000. In any case, its not very many. Because of their already restricted habitat, encroachment from development, logging and poaching is having a devastating impact on their numbers. On the reproduction end of things, bonobos only give birth at a maximum of once every 5 years and not until they are 15 years of age. You can image with an already low population, a restricted habitat and low reproduction rates the threat of hunting and habitat loss could, and is, having a devastating effect on this enigmatic species.

We don’t have extremely high levels of poaching here in Mai Ndombe like you find in Kenya for ivory, we mainly have hunters who’s family have hunted for generations. Like father like son. Bushmeat is still a main source of protein for many forest people, but it also has a high – and increasing - market value in Kinshasa, because it is prohibited and considered a specialty. The hunter likely killed our foster bonobo’s mother and perhaps the whole family for bushmeat, but maybe it was a trap set for another animal. He then took her baby thinking she would be valuable to sell in to the pet market (he was right, a black market bonobo can go for a lot of money). Obviously he was not thinking through the logistics of doing this though. 

Perhaps we should have called her side-burns

Bosongo (named after a village near where she may have come from) was brought here to Inongo in a sac bound by her ankles and waist. At some point she managed to escape and run away. She was spotted in an avocado tree, which is surprising - and indicative of her fear- given she is so small and much too little to be climbing trees on her own. The neighborhood spotted her, caught her and caged her in one house. Luckily the owner of this house was a good man and he and his wife knew that it was illegal to keep a bonobo. His neighbors and family began harassing him to sell Bosongo (prices were rumored to be as high as $1,500,000), but he knew better and visited the District Commissioner (like a mayor). It was at this point that my team caught wind of her presence in Inongo. I immediately called Lola ya Bonobo the Bonobo sanctuary we have visited multiple times near Kinshasa to find out what more I could do. Over the next few days I discussed the logistics of getting Bosongo back to Kinshasa with them, but as this was proving tricky we also worried about Bosongo's health in her current home. At this point I suggested that I ask the man if he would agree to me looking after her instead. Fanny at Lola was delighted with this idea and the man and his wife were very relieved. The exchange was done by the cover of darkness at the District Commissioners house. He pretended that he was giving her up to the District Commissioner to escape his neighbors that were now harassing him to kill her and divide the meat between them. And to save us further harassment. She is now a orphan stow away in our house.

Bosongo with a snowy lip

We prepared a room for her with some toys that she couldn't eat or hurt herself with, and a soft bed to sleep on. She was scared at first and just sat limply in my lap during the drive back to our house. I was worried about what may have happened to her and her psychological well being. But after an hour or so she began to look around more and hold on tightly. We prepared some water for her with oral re-hydration salts at the direction of Rafael, Lola's vet, and laughed when she stuck her face directly in the powder before I had a chance to put the water in. She looked like she had been in the snow.

We were happy to see her drinking some water and she showed mild interest in a guava. She was rubbing her eyes and very tired so we thought Tristan would sit with her in the dark and see if she fell asleep. She did within five minutes and didn't notice when he left. 

Tristan putting her to sleep the first night

Now she is a different baby, she is very attached to us, and wants to be held or touching us most of the time, but with a bit of encouraging or distraction with a toy she will play and walk around. She drank an enormous amount of water at the beginning, until I decided to stop her for a bit as she had the hiccups. She really must have been dehydrated. I’ve put antiseptic cream on the wounds that she has from being tied up, they are very deep and will take a long time to heal but she doesn’t seem too bothered by them. She's eating mango's and amaranth leaves and she slept on my lap during my French lesson and the rest of the time she is doing a good job of pulling things off our shelves and generally keeping us busy; like when she stole my French toast off my plate this morning. 

Bosongo entertaining herself in the kitchen

Helping Mom cook dinner. Ya!

"Please pick me up! I need to be cuddled!"

The last few days with Bosongo have been wonderful, time consuming and hectic. She is like a toddler but with 4 arms! If I am giving her cuddles then all is fine, but if she is free she is either begging to be picked up or she is on the table eating butter, knocking spices of the shelf, going through the garbage or generally getting herself in to mischief!

One thing that caught us out at first is if you stop her from getting in to something as you would a child, she invariably continues with her feet, her feet are actually more agile than her hands. As well if you catch her doing something bad she usually turns around quick and leaps in to your arms, we aren’t sure if it is a distraction technique or maybe has something to do with the cortisol hugging reflex. She also likes to eat what we eat, so will sit at the table and purse her lips and put them right close to your lips, an intimate kind of begging. She has captured our heart and there is nothing sweeter than having her look up to you, put her arms up and demand to be cuddled. Normally Bonobos stay with there mom until they are 5 years old, at this age they rarely venture further than a few feet from their moms, so she very much needs us and all the love we can give her. 

Close range begging. Do bonobo moms feed their babies by mouth?

We’ve had a few friends say that its good training for us to have kids, and we agree. Tristan and I are having to work as a team to distract her while one of us cooks, or take over with cuddles while the other one of us has a shower etc. One thing that is quite tricky is that she won’t go to anyone else, our cook is very kind with animals and he has tried for days to get her love, but I think she trusts us and that is enough for her. The transfer to the sanctuary will be an emotional one.

We were very alarmed the first few times she got in to trouble and we stopped her from doing whatever and she bared her teeth, screamed like a banshee and arched her back trying to get out of my arms. We are trying to keep her presence in our house on the down low in the neighborhood but when she makes that sound I think the whole town can hear.

Rather than looking scared, she looks like she's going to bop Zamba

Taking care of a Bonobo baby is a handful. Unfortunately we don’t have diapers (which has been done with primate babies before) so we are left cleaning up after her wherever she goes (she farts a lot too). Luckily she must know to not go in her nest, so she tends to go over the edge of things. Like down the back of the couch or over the edge of the table on Zamba sleeping below (bonobos in the wild sleep in nests, they make a different one each night and a good way of telling how threatened they feel is how close they build it to the ground). 

We were quite nervous about the dogs at first, and kept them out of the house the first day, but when we let them in and they ran over to inspect her, she wasn’t scared and she didn’t move away, so they quickly lost much interest. They do try and play with her when she runs around, which she doesn’t like much, but she just asks up and we rescue her. I actually caught her stroking Zamba the other day, and he protected her from the neighbors dog yesterday. 

Example of an Ape hug

As long as we are cuddling her she is normally fine, but when she sets her mind to something its nearly impossible to stop her. She is extraordinarily smart and learns fast. This morning I was drinking my smoothie and gave her a taste, by the end she was drinking it herself out of the bottle. I’ve also taught her to drink out of a glass. Putting her to sleep is another challenge. You lie her down but she holds on with her legs, you slowly try and slip them off you as she drifts off, but the moment you get up to leave she jumps up and tightens all four limbs around you in her baby ape hug. We gave up last night and slept with her in our bed, which actually worked out fine.

Feeling at ease, a good time for grooming

Bonobo hugs are amazing. She is strong enough to hold on without assistance from us. When she is worried she holds on so tight. But if we are relaxing, after a while she lets go of her death grip and turns around with her back to your body and proceeds with her chill pose. This is a good time for inspecting feet and hands and just being. 

Bosongo has quickly become a big part of our family. As I type this she is lounging in the chair with me, eyes blinking as she slowly drifts to sleep. The similarities between her and a human child are striking and you can feel it most when you look in her eyes. There is understanding there, communication, kindness, reason. She is so much more than just an intelligent wild animal, there is something deep in her eye. 

Chillin with Dad

A lot of people have asked us why we aren’t keeping her as a pet. First of all its completely illegal. Even in the wild west that is Congo her species is highly protected, it wouldn’t be long until the authorities were knocking at our door to seize her and fine us or put us in jail. Traveling out of the country with her would be impossible unless we were very corrupt indeed. But regardless of that, her survival and reintroduction to the wild is critical to her kind. When she is 15 she will have a baby, bonobo females only have about 4 or less offspring in their lives, so her survival means a lot to the survival of her species. In addition to this, bonobos are very social creatures, they are referred to as the hippies of the forest because they spend much of their social time in various types of sexual interaction. Chimpanzees fight, Bonobos make love. Bonobos also play a lot, scientists have begun studying them to see if we can learn more from bonobos about play interaction and socialization. If we were to keep her as a pet she would miss out on important social development and interaction with her fellow species. For this reason it makes me very sad to think of all the bonobos our there that have been bought as pets. It would be the same as keeping a human in a cage, or separate from other humans, just for the enjoyment of others that they can’t quite communicate with or understand.

So in the next few weeks we will get her paperwork in order so we can fly her or take her by boat to the sanctuary in Kinshasa. This paper work is expensive and time consuming. Frustratingly the very laws that are intended to protect her are making her rescue tricky. The flight and paperwork to get her to the sanctuary is going to cost $3,000 and then she will need surgery for the cataract in her eye. The American fundraising arm for the sanctuary has started a fund raising effort for Bosongo so if you would like to assist you can donate here. Both Tristan and I have visited it a number of times and we are confident that it is the best place for her to go. She will be with other orphans her own age and they have full time “foster moms”. We have visited the baby nursery before and they have a lot of fun. One thing that really makes us happy about her future is that Lola has a release program. So every year they take a group of bonobos that are ready to a remote forest where they know the local people won’t hunt the bonobos and release them. On one of our visits we bought a beautiful film of the work that Lola does so the footage from this release is sitting strongly in our minds when we look at little Bosongo.

The story of Bosongo can be a happier one (although it would be better if she were still in the wild where she belonged), but there are many other similar stories that don’t end the same way. By reading this, by sharing it with your friends and creating awareness for this little known but oh so special species, you are helping to save an animal that could teach us a lot about our own way of socializing and living on this planet. 

If you would like to donate to help get Bosongo to the sanctuary please do so at the Friends of Bonobos website; 99% of their donations go directly to Lola ya Bonobo. 

More on Bonobos:

TED Talks:  

Evolutions Gift of Play - How sex & play can solve problems

The Gentle Genius of Bonobos - Is what a species can do determined by biology or cultural exposure? 

Articles:

The Left Bank Ape - National Geographic  

Non-Governmental Organizations: 

Friends of Bonobos - Direct funder of Lola ya Bonobo

Lola ya Bonobo - Sanctuary and release program where Bosongo will be raised 

Bonobo Conservation Initiative - American organization dedicated to protecting bonobos in DRC

Les amis des bonobos en Belgique - Fundraising arm for Lola in Belgium

Friends of Bonobos on Facebook

More Photos:

She learns so fast. Nothing gets past her. You can see her computing and then she remembers later.

 

Generally she prefers to use her feet

Hands and feet. Feet is the one on the left with the thumb and fingers holding on to the hand. And other hand to the right.

Learning how to drink water from a glass.

Sleeping on Mom's boob.

She knows there are Mangos on the bar - look away for one second and she will be up there.

Chillin with mom and the dogs. As Tristan said, "she doesn't have much of an agenda" and so neither do we.

She's a Laaady!

Chillin with Dad

This is how we chill - she's got it down pat

Random sleeping positions are all the rage