another move...

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

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...

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

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..

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

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!

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

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

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

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

(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!

more news from zannah...

zannah is sending us more news, so I asked her if she could tell us a little about herself...

' im in the Psychology dept at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, part of the Scottish Primate Research Group. Im studying vocal communication in bonobos, and of course its relationship to social cognition. Im taking a psychological approach to vocal communication, thus i guess, examining the means that bonobos use vocalisations as behavioural tools to navigate their social worlds. There is very little research on vocal communication in bonobos, which provides an exciting but somewhat scary opportunity for me to explore! Some of my topics include the vocal sequences they produce during feeding ( evidence of kind of proto-language) as well as those during sex. Sex as we know has a very important social significance in bonobos, and so im examining how this translates into the associated vocalisations. Other primates only produce copulation calls during reproductive mating, but of bonobos produce these calls in purley social contexts.... it appears to be rank and audience related.... '

Fanny

I don't know if I mentioned this but we have a new vet! Fanny has been at Lola for a few months and everyone loves her - including the bonobos!

We usually have female vets, as you've probably noticed, coz it's a little known fact that bonobos prefer women to men, seriously. i don't know what it's all about maybe it's because men killed their mothers, but they retain this preference into adulthood, which is really odd.

So this is fanny with Sankusu, a new, totally huge bonobo - who is sankusu? i have no idea. I should find out though, give me some time.

Kodoro

The other little bonobo who was rescued a few weeks ago, Kodoro, is now firmly latched onto Mama Henriette. She must be one of the tiniest bonobos we have rescued at Lola. She needs to get some meat on those bones...

bowned eyed girl

has anyone ever seen eyes that big???

Lomako's vet results have come back clear - she is officially healthy. But as you can see, she's terribly thin - she needs to double her weight if she's going to be in the healthy range. but at least she is covered in long beautiful hair.

have a feeling this one's goign to be trouble for the boys in group 3...

Lomako's favourite food

Scallions! just like Kanzi, the talking bonobo at the great ape trust in Iowa.

Apparently Lomako can eat her whole body weight in scallions in an hour. Maybe she will get to heavy for Mama Micheline to carry - let's hope so!

Lomako

Lomako is at the sanctuary and going strong! Lomako, is of course, the wild reserve for bonobos in the Congo, and let's hope this little one might return to the wild as well.

Her Mama is Micheline, who has been carrying her around all day every day - lucky she is just a slip of a thing and doesn't weigh very much!

Eye candy - Kata& Sandoa

No need for a description - just look at that face!

news from Zannah - Kimia

Today Dilolo found a plastic bottle. Dilolo being Dilolo put the bottle on his head and walked about looked a cross between an alien and hanibal lector!

Salonga and baby Kimia are doing realy well! Salongo is such a calm and quiet mother. it's really exciting b/c Salonga has had about 4 babies and they've all died. and she's been wanting to be a mother for so long, she occasionally takes frogs from the pond and pretends they're babies!

a retired physicist

Just wanted to give a million bonobo hugs to Jim Holtz, who has just funded the building of the enclosure for the juveniles - this includes rascally boyoma, the little punk dilolo, and mwanda and all the little babies who are now growing up.

As you all know, after the infants arrive they spend several months/ years in the nursery until they have fully recovered from the trauma of losing their mothers. Then they go into Enclosure 3, which is the juvenile enclosure and learn to live in their first stable group. There is a 20 acre forest for them to play in, as well as a few gentle adult bonobos who look after them, until they can finally live in the grown up enclosures.

I don't know anything about Jim, except he is a retired physicist, which means he must be smart b/c I almost failed physics three years in a row...

thank you, jim, from us and all the rascally bonobos in group 3!