Bonobo Handshake

Full reintroduction report

2009-12-10T20:10:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

We have the pleasure of sharing with you this short update on the reintroduction of a first group of bonobos, rehabilitated at LOLA YA BONOBO, in the swampy primary forest of the DRC, at a place we have named EKOLO YA BONOBO ("the land of bonobos"). We had been preparing the reintroduction for several years now and the release of this first group is a landmark in our efforts. It is the first time ever that bonobos are reintroduced in their former habitat, and by all accounts the results are very encouraging....

On behalf of Claudine and the EKOLO and LOLA teams, we wish you a pleasant reading.

http://www.friendsofbonobos.org/news/?p=825

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Released bonobos back at Lola?

2009-12-08T18:41:00.000+01:00

I've had a couple of people write me and ask what the bonobos who were released were doing back at Lola - I'm sorry I didn't explain very well.

Max, beautiful Max with his long flowing locks, was a little more trouble than we thought. We had assumed that the bonobos would be afraid of the forest, so that human presence or post-release monitoring would prove reassuring. In practice, the released bonobos dapted surprisingly easily to their new environment, showing no sign of fear. In
particular, Max immediately started displaying towards intruders in “his” territory, before alming down and coming for a contact with known staff. Max similarly displays towards bonobos, but they seem to largely ignore his shows and simply get out of his way. The new trackers were notably more impressed and this delayed initial post-release monitoring
efforts.

When an intruding villager was bitten in August while fishing for eel right next to the isolation enclosure, it was decided to remove the three bonobos who were showing more potential aggressiveness and return them to LOLA, so that
the trackers could start effectively monitoring the group before the seasonal rise in river water risked dispersing the bonobos further away into the forest. On October 19-20, Max, Lisala and Lomami were transported back to LOLA YA BONOBO and reintegrated their former groups without any trouble – like they just went on a short holidays.

Max wasted no time running around having sex with all the females as soon as he was home. I thought a romance between he and Lomela was developing at the release site, but they don't seem to miss each other too much:)

Now with the remaining 6 bonobos at the release site - everything is fine. The trackers can follow them into the forest, and we can finally start gathering important data on their post release habits!

zannah #2

2009-12-07T22:38:00.000+01:00

Now that the big bonobos are back at Lola, we are able to enter the forest and walk with them, thats been fantastic. I have been teaching the team how to use GPS so now they can mark where the bonobos go for nests and where they walk to. We started off the process very gently, alloweing them time to get used to us. We did’ presentations’ on the beach, so they knew we were their friends. Etumbe and Suzy really are great pals, and Etumbe at the beginning, came to Suzy to make contact and check everything was ok. Then all was well- important to keep the female alliances!

from zannah

2009-12-04T22:01:00.000+01:00

"I just got back, and had an great time. There has been a lot of progress these last few weeks. As i think you know, Max Lomami and Lisala returned to Lola 2 weeks ago. They have come back for a bit of a summer-camp, and are happy to see Lola again. The idea is to have a new island for them, set up like Lola, where they can stay in safety but in their natural mileu."

My monkey baby...

2009-12-03T09:01:00.000+01:00

Just got this alert from Madeline:

I'm one of the many lurkers you have around your blog.
"My Monkey Baby", a new show on TLC, glorifies the keeping of monkeys as children. The show airs on October 4 and chronicles a couple who keep a capuchin as a “pet” but treat the monkey as their daughter. The couple dresses the monkey, who they have named Jessica Marie, in designer clothes, put makeup on her, and buy her children’s toys.
I think it is truly terrible. TLC's programming is mostly trash nowadays but this is a bit over the top - and could increase the number of apes in private hands in the US. Born Free USA already has a post set up about it, and the show's preview video is available in the feminist site Jezebel. I know you have your hands full (and then some) but it would be really cool if you could spread the word out to people that might have the means to prevent this show from becoming a permanent TLC fixture.

You can watch the preview here:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/monkey-babies-couples-treat-adopted-monkids-children/story?id=8723105

Please write to http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations and speak out about My Monkey Baby.

You can cut and paste this into your email:

Dear Discovery networks,

I am concerned about your show, My Monkey Baby.

Primates are not domesticated animals. While a tiny percentage of pet dogs will bite a human, all primates will readily bite a human.

ALL primates potentially carry diseases deadly to humans including Herpes B, Yellow Fever, Monkeypox, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, SIV, HIV and Tuberculosis.

Most primates are highly endangered. It is illegal to own, purchase or sell primates in Africa. Unfortunately, an international trade rages in Africa –- including the sale of primates. Hunters shoot mothers and sell their bodies as meat to rich city dwellers who can afford the luxury. They pull babies off the backs of their dead mothers to sell in the markets as pets. However, these pet traders are doing nothing worse than what is done in the United States legally: baby primates are pulled off their mothers’ backs and sold as pets.

Primate ownership in the US is hypocritical when we are trying to conserve them in the wild.

Please remove My Monkey Baby from your programming.

Sincerely,

a monkey breeder wrote me today...

2009-12-02T16:16:00.001+01:00

This was in my inbox this morning:

Vanesse,

While you most certainly have the right to express your opinion against primate ownership, you do however not have the rights to steal the content from our site to publish on your blog. Unless you have explicit permission from the owners of the pictures, you do not have the right to repost them on your site as you should know as a blogger. I’m sure you would not appreciate it if we would start publishing your pictures on our site. Please remove any stolen content from our site at once. I’ve already alerted some of the people involved to file a DMCA violation against you.

Thank you for your time!
Johan
www.primatestore.com

Between my three blogs I have thousands of readers (probably why they are concerned), many of you are faithful followers. So I'm asking you one thing that will really be of help to endangered primates all over the world:

From now on I'll be posting links to these monkey breeding websites. Please go, visit them, and when you're done, send your congress member the sandard format letter I'll have on the post.

How can we protect endangered animals in their indigenous countries if we in the US can buy and sell them as we please? How can we implore an African not to buy and sell chimpanzees and bonobos if we do exactly that?

I'll soon have a whole new website, where all this information will be in one place. Every time an add using a monkey, chimp, or other primate appears in the media I'll have the name and contact of the person in the company who hired them for you to write to. Every time a new primate is for sale on one of these websites, I'll have the link, so you can see these infant primates who will grow up to bite, dressed in clothes. Spread the word, write to your representatives and together we can keep primates in the wild where they belong.

By the way, this might interest you all:

http://jezebel.com/5021076/primetime-exposes-the-dangers-of-satisfying-baby-lust-with-monkeys

Thank you for your support, everyone.

little vanga passed away

2009-12-01T22:00:00.002+01:00

I'm not sure if I've written much about Vanga, the little terror of the nursery, but sadly he died a few days ago. I just got this note from Pierrot, our Education Manager at the sanctuary:

'The keepers heard a noise that a bonobo had fallen hard through a tree and the branch had broken. The bonobo cried out. Vanga was gravely hurt. His Mama Yvonne took him in her arms and tried to revive him, but he died a few hours later from loss of blood.'

I've known Vanga since he basically arrived at the sanctuary when he was 2 years old. He turned from a shy, scared little bonobo into king of the nursery. No one - soldier, ambassador, nun - could go into the nursery without Vanga's permission.

I'll miss him. Here is my favorite photo of him with Mama Yvonne

primate trafficker: Wild Animal World

2009-11-25T16:07:00.002+01:00

http://www.wildanimalworld.com/

Please help STOP the trafficking in primates:

Please, please everyone, write to your congress representative here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

And copy and paste this message:

Dear Senator,

I would like to support the

The Captive Primate Safety Act

Primates are not domesticated animals. While a tiny percentage of pet dogs will bite a human, all primates will readily bite a human.

ALL primates potentially carry diseases deadly to humans including Herpes B, Yellow Fever, Monkeypox, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, SIV, HIV and Tuberculosis.

Most primates, including chimpanzees, are highly endangered. It is illegal to own, purchase or sell primates in Africa. Unfortunately, an international trade rages in Africa –- including the sale of primates. Hunters shoot mothers and sell their bodies as meat to rich city dwellers who can afford the luxury. They pull babies off the backs of their dead mothers to sell in the markets as pets. However, these pet traders are doing nothing worse than what is done in the United States legally: baby primates are pulled off their mothers’ backs and sold as pets.

Primate ownership in the US is hypocritical when we are trying to conserve them in the wild.

I support this bill, and I urge you to do the same,

Sincerely,

Another monkey trafficker: Goyette Exotics

2009-11-23T16:02:00.002+01:00

www.goyetteexotics.com

Please help STOP the trafficking in primates:

Please, please everyone, write to your congress representative here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

And copy and paste this message:

Dear Senator,

I would like to support the

The Captive Primate Safety Act

Primates are not domesticated animals. While a tiny percentage of pet dogs will bite a human, all primates will readily bite a human.

ALL primates potentially carry diseases deadly to humans including Herpes B, Yellow Fever, Monkeypox, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, SIV, HIV and Tuberculosis.

Primate ownership in the US is hypocritical when we are trying to conserve them in the wild.

I support this bill, and I urge you to do the same,

Sincerely,

Featured monkey trafficker

2009-11-20T15:54:00.004+01:00

This is what we found today:

http://www.primatestore.com/forsale.asp

Please help STOP the trafficking in primates:

Please, please everyone, write to your congress representative here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

And copy and paste this message:

Dear Senator,

I would like to support the

The Captive Primate Safety Act

Primates are not domesticated animals. While a tiny percentage of pet dogs will bite a human, all primates will readily bite a human.

ALL primates potentially carry diseases deadly to humans including Herpes B, Yellow Fever, Monkeypox, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, SIV, HIV and Tuberculosis.

Primate ownership in the US is hypocritical when we are trying to conserve them in the wild.

I support this bill, and I urge you to do the same,

Sincerely,

selling primates

2009-11-18T15:37:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone,

I want to bring up something really serious that you guys can help with.

The buying and trafficking of primates in the US is a very real problem that is making the work of conservationists really difficult.

It is completely legal to buy/ sell monkeys, chimps, and bonobos in the US, even when these animals are endangered in Africa.

www.wildanimalworld.com
http://www.primatestore.com/forsale.asp

I know you all know the reasons why this is wrong: how can we tell Africans to conserve their endangere species when we buy and sell them over here like puppies, then there is the issue of disease, bites, and the welfare of the monkeys themselves who end up in cages or abandoned or at biomedical facilities or roadside zoos.

The reason this is still legal is because the pet traders are very effective lobbyists.

Please, please everyone, write to your congress representative here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

And copy and paste this message:

Dear Senator,

I would like to support the

The Captive Primate Safety Act

Most people keep domesticated animals, whether it’s a dog, cat or a cow. We know the biological systems in their bodies that control stress responses are down-regulated relative to wild animals. This means that the average dog, cat, cow, etc. stays much more calm in a stressful situation than a wolf, lion or buffalo. Because domesticated animals do not become as stressed, they rarely if ever attack humans compared to wild animals. It’s true that 23 Americans died last year from dog bites, but this statistic would be many times higher if the 68 million dog owners had instead lived in as close contact with wolves. By living together with us for thousands of years, domesticated animals have been bred to live together with humans relatively harmoniously. Domestication is the process of breeding out aggression toward humans

Primates are not domesticated animals. While a tiny percentage of pet dogs will bite a human, all primates will readily bite a human.

ALL primates potentially carry diseases deadly to humans including Herpes B, Yellow Fever, Monkeypox, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, SIV, HIV and Tuberculosis.

Most primates, including chimpanzees, are highly endangered. It is illegal to own, purchase or sell primates in Africa. Unfortunately, an international trade rages in Africa –- including the sale of primates. Hunters shoot mothers and sell their bodies as meat to rich city dwellers who can afford the luxury. They pull babies off the backs of their dead mothers to sell in the markets as pets. However, these pet traders are doing nothing worse than what is done in the United States legally: baby primates are pulled off their mothers’ backs and sold as pets.

Primate ownership in the US is hypocritical when we are trying to conserve them in the wild.

I support this bill, and I urge you to do the same,

Sincerely,

chillin'

2009-11-16T16:34:00.000+01:00

When he isn't freaking out at frogs, Fizi likes to chill out in the afternoons by the water side, i often see him there just looking up, seeming to be contemplating something

The rainy season has started!

2009-11-13T16:32:00.001+01:00

We had our first big rain last night, so the rainy season has finally commenced. All the bonobos have been busy making day-nests up in the trees, getting cosy in case of a big down-pour! Maya and Bisengo were fast asleep in their nest this afternoon, they looked really cute.

why chimps don't make good pets

2009-11-12T21:32:00.001+01:00

another move...

2009-11-09T16:24:00.000+01:00

boyoma playing with malaika

Muanda being groomed by Isiro

Yesterday, there was a big move of group 3 into group 2. Isiro, Boyomo, Yolo, Api and Mabali all moved over. Isiro knew exaclt whjere to go as she's already been in gp 2, but it was all new and a llittle scary for little Boyoma and Yolo. Isiro was ind and kept gesturing back to Boyomo, fo him to come and hang on to her. She made sure he clung on as they made their way. Yolo was a bit more cool, he stayed close but wasn't gonna hangi onto some girl. The next to enter were Api and Mabali. Api was fine but Mabali didnt know where to go, so Papa Phillipe led him down. When they arrived, there was lots of sex and screaming, but no disputes and no aggression. They were welcomed and settled in happi;y. Little Boyoma is very well, dashing about with the other little boys. He gets on well with everyone, and seems especially Elikia

A big day

2009-11-06T16:18:00.000+01:00

Sankuru looking over her Mama's shoulder

settling into group 3

Today Sake, Sankuru and Tchilenge moved to group 3. It was a big day, especially for little Sake! All went really well. Kikongo was the first male to join them, and was so excited to see these pretty girls in his enclos. Sankuru was quite surprised at first but understood exactly how to act with Kikongo, and they had lots of greeting sex. Sake wanted to stay with the mamas but after a little tantrum, she settled down and played well with the others. Tchilenge was very content to be bac with the boys. Maniema Billi and Kiongo joined them, and it already looks like Sankuru was leading the way around the enclos. Maybe the next alpha!

the boys...

2009-11-04T16:16:00.000+01:00

Bili has moved back into group 3 and is having a great time dashing about with the boys. Maniema as ever keeps himself to himself a bit, but we have lots of fun making faces to each other. I didn't realise bonobos could roll their tongues, but Maniema is very adept at it. He just loves pulling silly faces and sticking his tongue out at you. Very cute

Kikwit and Keza

2009-11-02T16:13:00.000+01:00

There are quite a few changes taking place in terms of group composition, to make way for the new training programme of the 12 juveniles for the next release. Kikwit and Keza moved into group 1 last week week. Keza's being a bit of a loner and after a bit of rough treatment from the females,has moved back into Group 2. but Kikwit is absolutely loving being back. All the females gathered round and spent hours and hours grooming him and welcoming him back. He was blissful lying there with all the attention of the group!

the frog..

2009-10-30T16:08:00.000+01:00

Fizzi, the big brave male of enclosure 2, found a dead frog the other day. Upon seeing it, he squealed like a little girl until his buddy Makali, another big male came over to see what all the fuss was about. Upon seeing the frog, Makali also started squealing, and got into such a tizzy that he threw the frog straight at Elikya, a baby girl who caught it on the fly.

Kalina, an adult female came with her baby on her back to calm the guys down. She picked up the frog and left with it, putting it on the ground every now and then to see if there was any life left in the poor thing. Being sure that there was no chance of a sudden resurrection, she threw the frog in the water.

Fizzi decided this was still too close and ran as far away from the floating body as he could. When he got to the forest he promptly pretended to be very interested in the grass and acted like the whole episode never happened...

Sankuru update

2009-10-28T15:33:00.000+01:00

For all those waiting for news of Sankuru, here she is! this little one has lately become more independant, she's bee climbing down off her Mama, and now spends most of her time playing with her brothers and sisters. Her favorite of the moment seems to be big brother Eleke, who is big enough to play horse with her! She can be seen in the nursery riding around on him most of the day...

Salonga's baby still alive!

2009-10-25T15:29:00.000+01:00

It's a miracle - after losing every baby she's had until now, Salonga has become an extraordinary mother to Kimia - who is now 3 months old! Salonga, as some of you know, has always been desperate for a baby, mothering frogs, small mammals and even large insects. Now, her own baby is strong, healthy, and we have every hope that she'll keep growing! Thank you for all your good wishes, and Salonga sends her love and these new snaps!

Kinshasa l'acrobat

2009-10-23T15:24:00.000+02:00

Kinshasa, the new bonobo we rescued last April, is a tight rope walker! she amuses herself all day long by going to the highest and longest bar on the jungle gym and walking up and down it! Phillipe petite French in the making?

the lomako and kodoro trap

2009-10-21T15:32:00.000+02:00

this is one of the perils/perks of being a long distance blogger - i ask everyone who goes to lola for photos and stories, especially of the ones we love like kata, lomela& boyoma - but as soon as they get there they get all caught up in the absolute CUTENESS of lomako and kodoro and forget all my requests and just send images and news of these two babies, who are, let's admit it, adorable.

hang in there parents! we'll get news of your babies one of these days!! sigh....

zannah - the clothes theives

2009-10-19T15:31:00.000+02:00

the bonobos are being very successful clothes theives at the moment. seems to be several times per week at least.This morning, Dilolo and Kisantu carefully selected an appropriate stick to swipe one of the day keepers shirts. they were very content swinging about in the trees with their booty, and then manono spent hours washing and re-washing his part in the lake. Bisengo played blindman's buff with his torn peice, dashing about and toppling over, in fits of giggles

zannah and lomako

2009-10-16T15:27:00.000+02:00

(oops - i got it wrong - i thought kodoro and lomako were little girls - but they're actually little boys! sorry you two!)

the 2 new males, Lomako and Sodoro are really making progress. Lomako is pretty shy still, but he is still so small! their quarantine time is nearly up, so soon it will be time to meet the rest of the nursery. they are pretty turbulent at the moment, with so many of them! but yvonne is back from holiday, so having an extra pair of hands about again will be helpful!