| Bonobos |
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Although an optimum habitat has not been established, Bonobos make their way bipedal through the Congo River Basin- their only place of existence in the world. An estimated 10,000-20,000 bonobos live here, as they travel on the ground daily searching for food, copulating, and building sleeping places (Chargot, 2002). Their remote location in the Congo River Basin has made them difficult to study, as an accurate census is even virtually impossible to take (Chargot, 2002). Also, given their slow rate of reproduction, the rapid destruction of its tropical habitat and the political instability of central Africa, great fear for the survival of the species is circulating throughout the scientific community. |
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Fruit is the staple of the bonobo diet, and is supplemented with various leaves, pith, flowers, seeds, and even a few invertebrates. While bonobos have been observed eating meat, they are not active hunters. Bonobos have long legs atop narrow shoulders, creating a more graceful build than the chimpanzee. Their lips are reddish and their faces black. Bonobos have a patch of long, fine, black hair on top of their heads, which they keep parted down the middle, giving them a somewhat endearing appearance (de Waal, 1995). Recently there has been a growing body of evidence of the existence of "zoopharmacognosy," the self-medication of bonobos, where they utilize plant secondary compounds or other non-nutritional substances to medicate themselves. This takes alternative forms too, as some species can tolerate severe poisons in their bodies. Bonobos most commonly use this technique as a primary method of fighting parasites (Huffman, 1997). |
The green area of the map is bonobo area.
Bonobos are being increasingly consumed as a viable protein and economic resource. Hunters, using modern weapons, easily wipe out a stretch of several hundred miles within a few months. For many years, bonobos were safe because of widespread fears and taboos, for locals viewed bonobos and man as "brothers of long ago" and local legends protected them. In these legends, bonobos and man lived side by side until man invented fire. Bonobos also protected men from harm and even carried them down from trees when vines they were climbing broke. Likewise, bonobos would attack and kill men who hunted them. They differentiated between men who were their friends and those who were their enemies. Until 1980, trapping was their largest threat, for they often became ensnared in traps meant for other animals (The Bonobo Protection Fund, 2000).
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Above is the flag of the Republic of the Congo |
| Also, sadly infants are often taken as pets, in hopes that they can be sold, because they are too small to provide much meat. The pet trade has been severely curtailed by international efforts to stop the importation of primates as pets, though, and so infants rarely bring much money to the hunter. More often today, infants become playthings for local children, who, knowing no better, tease them till they die of starvation (The Bonobo Protection Fund, 2000). |
Below, infant ape that served as a pet until it died of starvation. It lived in a suitcase.
| Above, a bonobo hand mangled by a hunter's trap. |