We love Sara Gruen!

You’ve probably heard of Sara Gruen, who wrote the New York Times Bestseller Water for Elephants. When I bought it at Borders, everyone from the manager to the cashier saw it in my hand and just had to blurt out ‘that’s an amazing book’. And it is. I just finished reading it and it was wonderfully moving, funny, and poignant at the same time. I even cried and I never cry when I read.

We’re terribly excited because her next book will be about bonobos! Not only that, but Sara has sponsored over 30 bonobos – half the sanctuary! Thanks to her wonderful generosity, we have over four times the adoptions of all of last year.

So all you bonobo fans, make sure you buy her next book, I think it will be called Ape House. And while you’re at it, if you haven’t already, buy Water for Elephants. It is the best book I have read all year. And we can proudly say that part of the proceeds goes to us!

As you can see, Eleke got very excited about Water for Elephants and didn’t want to give it back. We had to chase him for half an hour up a tree, and only after Mama Henriette promised she would read it to him!

The post is for James the bonobo fan

Guess who's now running with the big boys now - Boyoma! The little terror of the nursery has been moved in with the big bonobos in enclosure two. I'm totally ecstatic because he bit me last year.

Here he is, don't you love that little angelic face?



But then I took this one which shows he's still the same Boyoma.



Now the terror of the nursery is Vanga. Can't believe it. Dear little sweet Vanga who I have known since he was the size of a kitten is now running around terrorizing people. I don't know why the oldest ones in the nursery always bite. Probably a dominance struggle.

Kataco!

Here is the malnourished little bonobo from last year, Kataco, the one who nearly died because she wouldn't drink any milk.

Now she is quite the little madam, just look at that pout.



She loves her Mama Henriette, who sat with her in the bungalow for two months waiting for her to recuperate.


So as you can see she is totally adorable. Even if she is given to throwing tantrums.

Today I saw one of my most favourite bonobo behaviours - peering. It's when one bonobo wants some food, and they look very intently at them. Chimps actually try and take the food out of the mouth of the chimp whose got the food. Bonobos do it more politely, but I don't know if you've ever tried to eat with someone staring at you, but it's very disconcerting. It would work on me for sure.

We're here!

Finally, we're at Lola! Thank god. Crossing the river was not as easy as I remember. In fact, can I offer some advice to anyone thinking of taking the boat from Brazzaville to Kinshasa - do not take 18 bags of luggage. Especially if you are only 5 poeple and therefore only have 10 hands.

The weirdest thing I saw was on the other side while we were getting hassled by customs (what IS in all those bags, madam?) was about 20 handicapped people coming through in a line with boxes strapped all over their bodies. There were blind people, people in wheel chairs, people with no legs getting carried, and all of them looked like suicide bombers with packets of whatever stuffed under their tshirts.

It turns out handicapped people are not taxed when they bring goods from one country to the other, so importers hire them to carry their stuff. crazy.

Here are the two newest bonobos - lukuru who is the smallest bonobo I have ever seen. She is only 18 months old and it's a miracle she's alive.


This one is Masisi, who is worryingly thin. I haven't had a chance to chat with the vet about the prospects of these two but will hopefully do by tommorrow.

Testing starts Monday!!

off to bonobo land!!

Yay! It's finally the day we've been waiting for! We're crossing the Congo river to see the bonobos so you may not hear from me for a few days

We're nervous and excited at the same time because we're flying on the congolese airline TAC, then crossing the river by boat to Kinshasa and manage to get our 15 suitcases full of equipment and data from the last two months through customs.

most of all i cant wait to see the bonobos and see how they have changed.


Brian and I will be sad because Molou died and will miss her. http://www.friendsofbonobos.org/news/?p=71



But on the brighter side there are some new orphans who seem to be survivors. Bonobos often die when they first come to the sanctuary b/c they are so fragile and loose the will to live without their mothers - this is very different than chimps who are more robust against their ill fate. So we are curious to meet these new orphans and learn all about their personalities at the nursury.

there are at least 3 new babies, this one is Eleke who was found by the side of the road.



Also it will be fun to to see Solanga with her new baby.


the big question for our work over the next weeks will be whether the dorm is going to work. we built and big gerbil cage for the bonobos with lots of interlocking rooms that we can use to play all sorts of games with them, but they are so anxious about new things we just are not sure how they are going to react . it could be that none of our tests will work and brian will cry.

this one is a little gross....

In Africa, things are always extreme than they are at home.

Sometimes I get mouth ulcers, or canker sores. It's not too bad, I can't eat pineapple but I can live with it.

Here, I get a mouth ulcer epidemic. The malaria medicine causes them and I have never experienced anything this disgusting in my mouth since I kissed that boy in the 9th grade. This is what they look like




Not only are they HUGE, but they are totally painful and I have a mouth full of them. I can barely talk. Eating makes me cry.

We have been watching a lot of House, that show about that cranky pants doctor, so naturally I'm assuming it's some kind of cancer or other horrible disease.

So here's my question:

I can switch malaria medicines. The one we take now, Malarone, is brand new and extremely effective - no one has come down with malaria on it since it came out. I can switch to Doxycycline, which I've taken before and doesn't give me mouth ulcers, but it's only 90% effective, which means there's a 1 in 10 chance of getting malaria.

Normally, I'd be like, malaria whatever, take the cure, but there's this prevalent type of malaria in Congo called falciparum that gets into your brain and can kill you in 4 days.

Put up with mouth ulcers? or switch drugs and risk death.

What would House do?

what the...

firstly, slb is a legend for sponsoring Lukuru, the bonobo. the bonobo sanctuary only had 8 adoptions last year, so slb really made a difference for this year! If you want to adopt a bonobo, the most endangered ape species in the world, go here: www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm

You can make a one time donation or sponsor one for the whole year!

also, re: the comments last post, oh my god I wish i could see The Outsiders. I can understand why people think monkeys and apes would make good children. They look like little people. But all those people on that show, I guaruntee you they will end up like this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301819_pf.html

just because apes look like people, doesn't mean they act like people, just like tigers don't act like pussy cats.

Chimps as pets are banned in some states but not all. And yes, chimps get very big. The reason you don't see adult chimps on television is that by 10 years old, they can no longer be controlled, even with electric shocks, beatings, and everything else Hollywood trainers use to keep their chimps making money as long as possible. Then they usually end up in biomedical facilities, sanctuaries, or dead.

ok, enough about all that. So. I stare at these things every time I come to Congo. I've looked them up all over the internet and I can't find them.



Can someone please tell me, wtf? Are they, like, termite mounds? I don't think so b/c I split on open and there's nothing inside. They kind of look like ancient stromatolites in Western Australia which are among the oldest organisms on earth. But I don't think these guys are that old.

This is me on my walk.

can i have that chimp as my pet?

I just found this comment from june 22

chalcuna said...

can i have that chimp as my pet?

Oh my god. No you retard, you can't! How do these assholes find my blog? Number one, dumbass, the reason I study ORPHANS in a sanctuary is because their mothers have been killed so the babies can be sold to evil people like you.

I recently went to a legislation hearing in North Carolina because Americans believe that just as it is their god given right to buy guns, it is also their right to have a chimpanzee for a pet.

Brian had to get up in front of a bunch of senators and explain why this is not a good idea.

#1 Chimpanzees are wild animals. Animals that make good PETS like dogs and cats, have been domesticated for millions of years. There has been selection on them against agression, which is why a dog, unlike a wolf, will not automatically tear you to pieces. Anyone who has a pet chimpanzee for long enough will eventually no longer be able to control them and will either get a body part bitten off or will have to use extreme force to control them. Chimps live to be 50 years old and grow almost as big as a human male. They have extremely powerful muscles and are 5-10 stronger than a heavy weight boxer.

This is the size of a full grown adult next to the baby sized chimps you see in commercials and on TV




#2 Because of this aggressive temperament people who sell these animals as pets must do so when they are adorable and harmless infants. Their customers do not know the level of aggression these animals are capable of or there strength.

#3: Even accredited zoos and universities struggle to pay the expenses required to house wild chimps humanely and safely. The vast majority of chimp owners do not have the resources to assure the welfare of their wild pet and the safety of their neighbors.

#4 ALL primates potentially carry diseases deadly to humans including herpes B, yellow fever, monkeypox, Ebola, Marburg, SIV, and tuberculosis.

#5 But politicians in these countries point to the lack of laws in the United States and ask why someone in North Carolina can have a pet monkey or tiger but a Congolese or Brazilian cannot. My hope is that we will set an example for the world for the humane treatment of wild animals – their very survival depends upon it.

And finally and most importantly, the pet trade is an international problem that threaten many species with extinction. Conservationists are trying to stop this trade in developing countries where people kill endangered wild animals to sell as pets at home and abroad. But politicians in these countries point to the lack of laws in the United States and ask why is it wrong and illegal for them to have a chimpanzee as a pet, and if chimpanzees are an endangered animal that should be conserved and protected, wanyone in the USA can order one over the internet with a credit card?

We don't buy and sell people any more. Since chimps and bonobos share 98.7% of our DNA, don't they deserve the same respect?

upriver

Today we went up the couilou river, to try and have lunch by a lake. The water is an amazing Coca Cola brown. On the way to the lake the river got choked up by water hyacinths that kept getting stuck in the boat propellor. We never made it to the lake. The water hyacinths were like spooky monsters that kept closing in behind us. The Congolese boat drivers were nervous because they had never been that far up the river before and they were worried about mermaids. Apparently if you don't perform elaborate rituals and ask permission, the mermaids get really pissed off.


But, not to be defeated, Brian captured some of the enemy and stuck them in his hat, like feathers.


Sponsor a bonobo! www.friendsofbonobos.org

Queer eye for the straight dog

thanks to all for your sweet, encouraging comments about the congolese compliments. i carried them with me this morning as deanne looked me up and down critically and said, 'well your tits have gotten smaller but your ass is definately bigger'.

thanks also for being patient till we get to bonobo land - 8 days left, and still just kicking it on the other side of the congo river. as to what i do all day, well some people get all goey over other people's babies when they are about to have a baby.

I am like that with people's dogs because when we get back to America, Brian says I can get a puppy.

This is Tango.



I don't know if you can tell but He is the manky African dog of our friends Rebeca and Fernando. Whe I saw him, with all his natural dreadlocks and smelling like he'd rolled in dead fish then jumped into a sewer, I practically clapped my hands and squealed 'project!'

I gave him a bath today.

Then I tortured him for four hours, cutting off his dreadlocks and combing out the thousands of burrs in his fur that were causing the dreadlocks.

Now he looks like this




So purrrrty.


Save the bonobos! www.friendsofbonobos.org

eek...

Last night, Brian woke me up by shining his flashlight in my face. I was ready to kill him because I am jetlagged and it takes hours to get back to sleep. He pushed me so I rolled over and then when I knew I was woken up, I sat up and prepared to kill him, but then I saw Brian pulling a scorpion off the netting that was right next to my head.

I have a thing about scorpions. I hate their little square heads and I think it's wretched that they eat their children when they get hungry. I hope I am not that way with my kids when they wake me up, but it's too early to tell because I don't have any yet.

Anyway, my friends Meride was stung by a scorpion and she nearly died. So obviously I was very freaked out by the scorpion sitting by my face.

Take no notice of the fact that it's about as big as a dust speck. i think the smaller they are, the more poisonous. I totally nearly died.

feeling fat

I don't know why, but the Congolese feel compelled to tell you 50 times a day you look fat. Especially if they haven't seen you for a while.

'Oh Vanessa,' Christelle says 'You have become so large.'

'You are completely fat now,' says Godeline. 'Your ass is so big.'

I guess big is beautiful over here, and the Congolese women have definately got bootylicious going on. It's like they could perch a parrot on their behinds. But for me, I have already got a fat complex since I turned 30 because I don't burn calories just breathing like I did at 22. And then I moved to the South (North Carolina) where everything that doesn't move is deep fried.

So I walk for an hour a day.

'Where are you going?' says Clotaire. 'I'll give you a lift.'

'No thanks, I'm walking.'

'Eh? But I'm free to drive you.'

Everyone thinks it's hilarious that I would walk around for exercise. As in, not to go somewhere but effectively do a big circle.

'I need to lose some weight,' I say by way of explaination which is still completely incomprehensible. But every morning when I see everyone, it's still

'Vanessa! You are fat!'


Don't forget! you can adopt a bonobo here: www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm

penis post II

Oh la la. Quite a few hands went over groins in the last post I see. The men here have a specific walk here now when they visit the market, where they cover their jewels with their hand in their pocket.

I don't blame anyone for their concern, as there are certainly a few women in prison for something that isn't likely to exist, but after spending enough time in Congo, I'm fascinated with their beliefs in witchcraft. I started off with the same views most of you have, that it's probably a load of nonsense, and after seeing bonobos and chimpanzees arriving with parts of their bodies cut off, one finger at a time for use in black magic, I was indignant and appalled.

Congolese black magic is often cruel and has no scientific basis. Yet the people here beleive in it with a ferocity that is unshakable. After a lot of thought, I wonder whose fault it is that the standard of living here is so low that the people in the villages have no access to an education that would persuade them boiling the bone of an infant bonobo in water will not make pregnant women strong, or cure them of lethargy.

As I sit here at night, I can see the flames of the oil drilling at sea. Pointe Noire in Congo has a reserve of oil that would embarrass Saudi Arabia and it is selling it for a song to oil companies in Europe and the US. Both regions pay off government officials so they can buy the oil at a cheaper rate so Americans can continue to drive their SUVs (not sure what the Europeans do with it, since their cars are the size of matchboxes) , even though buying at a fair price and ensuring the money goes where it is supposed to would ensure a secondary education for every child in Congo.

So before you riducule beliefs that have been part of tribal heritage for generations, ask whose fault it is that those beliefs have never changed.

Penis theft

Just arrived and already it's got interesting. I don't know if you heard about the penis theft panic that was hitting DRC Congo last month

www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2290323220080422

So apparently it's come across the river to Congo Brazzaville. This is Chantal, my source:



yes that is a giant bug she's holding. So she tells me she heard from one of her friends who has a friend whose penis has disappeared. The witches arrived in Brazzaville from Nigeria, and that they bump into men in the market, and their penis vanishes. Not falls off, just vanishes leaving an area as smooth as your arm. There is no blood or scarring. There have been 3 cases of this penis theft in Pointe Noire. The men here at the chimp sanctuary are terrified and no one is going into town.

Of course this all sounds like total nonsense, except for the absolute conviction of everyone here where magic is a part of life. And is the penis theft stranger than the concept of cancer? Where your cells start mysteriously destroying each other? Or anyone of a hundred weird diseases that baffle doctors and specialists and no one knows how to cure?

And the other question is, if you're Evan (the graduate student) or Brian (my husband) do you risk going into town?

The team

While Brian and I have been swimming in the lake near our house, baking muffins and sitting on our bottoms, there are already two graduate students from Duke and one from Harvard over in Congo working hard. Here is a post about them by Duke Research

Check out the chimp grabbing Evan's arm...

For mentors like Duke assistant professor Brian Hare, a visit to graduate students working in a tropical jungle involves more than going over the science.

“It’s sort of a morale booster because field work like theirs is tough,” he says. “They’re working in places with no air conditioning in the most hot and humid conditions. And it’s exhausting.”

“I need to remind them to drink lots of clean water, take their malaria prophylaxes and wear a lot of sun screen.”

But when they aren’t working on their own survival skills, the students gather important data to contrast and compare the thinking style of our two closest ape relatives.

Duke graduate students Evan MacLean and Alexandra Rosati are working this summer with Harvard-based graduate student Victoria Wobber at two reserves in Africa to evaluate tantalizing questions about bonobos and their alter ego lookalike species, chimpanzees.

Wobber previously built evidence that male bonobo toddlers produce the highest levels of sexual hormones in their lives during infancy. She collected hormone samples by enticing the infants to drool saliva as they sucked on a sweet.

This summer, Wobber will administer a battery of mental development tests on 2- to 5-year-old infants of both species. Evaluations will range from tool use and counting ability to social learning skills.

Meanwhile, Rosati will be assessing how each species handles the primate equivalent of “economic decision-making” — in this case involving food. She and her colleagues have already learned that chimps are gamblers who are willing to risk losing food for the possibility of getting more. But bonobos “prefer the safe option,” Hare says. They’re more comfortable with a smaller but unchanging ration.

Now Rosati will use Wobber’s saliva sampling technique to monitor sex hormones of both species to see if the levels may be tied to their differing food risk strategies.

One of MacLean’s summertime projects will evaluate whether young bonobos and chimps learn tasks more quickly – like human children do – when the subject is presented with a happy face. In the process, MacLean will make ape-like vocalizations “equivalent to ‘I’m really happy,’” Hare says.

adopt a bonobo here!

Going to Congo - and adopt a bonobo!

I can't believe it's that time of year again. It feels like just yesterday I was so sad to be ending the blog and now it's time to go.

We're leaving on Wednesday and of course I haven't packed a thing. Or done anything I'm supposed to do. We've just bought a house in Chapel Hill so all I want to do is reupholster some chairs and design a Japanese garden but instead I have to go and deal with all those Congo bugs. I almost want to call off the trip but then how am I going to resist this?

This is Pole, Opala's baby, and just like every other baby he is going to have grown so much!

So of course I'm excited to see everyone again. No doubt Boyoma is going to bite me, the little punk, but it will be worth it if I get to give Yolo hugs.

On to more executive matters, we just had the Friends of Bonobos board meeting in Washington D.C on the weekend, and our President told us we only had 8 adoptions last year! Partly it's because the payment option on the website was a pain in the ass, but now it's been revamped.

So adopt a bonobo! http://www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm Look how cute they are!

That's Lomela and Kata from last year, our little survivors. They'll look so different this year. Apparently Kata has a terrible temper and is a total drama queen.

See you in Congo!

Don't forget to write!

Don't forget, if you want me to let you know when the blog starts up again next year, send an email to: monkeymojo6@yahoo.com with the subject: Bonobo Handshake List

Until next year...

Well, I'm back in Germany. My face gets frozen every time I go outside and all the snot in my nose has dried up because I've gone from 100% - 0% humidity in a couple of hours.

I've had the most fun ever writing this blog. Over 32,000 people have read about their remarkable weirdness, and instead of feeling alone in my bonobo world, I feel somehow connected.

Thank you to all those people who read the blog. Thank you to all those people who wrote wonderfully warm and encouraging comments, you really made my day every time I felt your enthusiasm in the sweltering Congo summer. Thank you to all those people who had questions and criticisms, and giving me an opportunity to share what I knew, and to take on board what you knew.

To all those who want to help bonobos, go to www.lolayabonobo.org . You can adopt a bonobo from the sanctuary, help translate newsletters, or better still, go and visit them yourself.

For those who want a more armchair experience, I'm giving 10% of the profits of my new book, It's every monkey for themselves to Lola ya bonobo sanctuary. To buy a copy click here. To read more about it, and check out reviews, go to my website, www.vanessawoods.net


Anyone who wants me to let you know when I start the blog again next May, send your email to monkeymojo6@yahoo.com with the Subject: Bonobo Handshake List, and I'll shoot an email just before the next blog starts.

Finally, I want to show you some pictures that you haven't seen yet, that are my favourite memories.

Once again, and a million more times,

Thank you.

Vanessa.


Max, being as beautiful and rippling as a bonobo boy can be. They call Max, le gorille, because he spent years in a gorilla sanctuary. When he arrived at Lola, he actually spoke gorilla, that is, low rumbling calls, instead of high bonobo squeaks.



I love this photo of Isiro. She looks like a dancer. And I love the way her toe almost touches the log, but not quite.




Baby Bisengo, the undisputed king of group 2, having a little sip of mummy's breast milk.





Claudine and Kata. Every bonobo, from the youngest to the biggest is fascinated by her flaming red hair.




Lomela getting chased by the chicken. Lomela was so scared she screamed and jumped into my arms.



Lomami's hand. Every single one of his fingers, some of his toes, and bits of his penis were sliced off to use in black magic. Witch doctors use bonobo parts in black magic. When Lomami arrived, all his wounds were in different stages of healing. Which means they kept him in a cage, chopped on one of his fingers off. Left him for a few days, came back and chopped off another finger. Claudine said, he was so sick and listless from all the torture, she didn't think he would make it. He spent his first year in a tree, alone. Even now, he doesn't come near people.

Lukaya, picking Lomami's nose.

Semendwa asking for an apple. She doesn't beg with an arm outstretched like other bonobos. She stands up tall and proud as a queen. Then when I still took too long to give her an apple because I was taking a photo, she threw a handful of mud in my face.


Noki with her bedroom eyes.



Kata laughing for the first time. It was soon after I thought she would die. I'd been playing with her and tickling her for weeks, but she never smiled, and looked so sad when I tried to play. When she laughed, I would have given anything, anything at all to keep her laughing all day, every day for the rest of her life.

Over 30,000 bonobo handshakes

Well, this blog has been running for just under 8 weeks and already we've have 32,000 people visit. This has absolutely blown me away. I thought maybe a couple hundred people would come through and learn something about bonobos, but the sheer amount of interest has left me excited and touched.

You've all been super supportive and I have been close to tears with how truly wonderful people can be, even all the way across the world. Today, I want to revist some of the hundreds of comments that you guys have sent, and answer them as best I can.


From An educated man

wanharris said...

Where will he go -- I know you can't take any more but what will happen to the little guy -- I just don't know how you cope!!! it is horrible to see the forest go and the chimps homeless! did he take him to another place is there a chance for the little chimp?

Hi Wan,
It's a Catch 22 . The biggest problem with baby chimps and bonobos is that the poachers think they can sell them. JGI can't take any more chimps or the ones they have will start to suffer. And unfortunately, there is nowhere else for them to go. I think what will happen is that the man who bought him might keep him for a few years and then try and sell him to a lab or a zoo. It's tough, really tough. And I don't do the coping. It's the people in charge of the sanctuaries who have to look the baby chimp in the face and turn them away that have to live with the choice. Chimpanzees aren't dogs, you just can't throw them in a big group and expect them to all get along. They grow up, they start to get violent, and it takes extreme amounts of time and money to make sure they don't end up tearing each other to pieces.


From Chimpanzees are not dogs

slb said... Excellent, excellent post, Vanessa. I would add that everyone should buy only products that are cruelty free, and carefully research any drugs your doctor prescribes - a lot of chimpanzees are used for all sorts of product and pharmaceutical research. I believe the HSUS puts the number of chimps in testing facilities in the U.S. at 1,300. THIRTEEN HUNDRED.

All those adverts that feature animals in some human incarnation make my blood boil. Don't even get me started on the circus ...

Dear slb,
As of March this year, the NIH (National institute of Health) has permenantly banned breeding of laboratory chimps. This is fantastic news, as chimps in labs can be horribly abused, even just by sitting completely alone every day for their entire 50 years.

The problem is, people who depend on chimpanzees for medical and psychological research are going to have to find a new source. Where will they go? Will they buy baby chimps from Africa then set up in a country with no regulations for welfare, like China or Lebanon?

Keep your ears open folks. When the current population of laboratory chimps starts to die, things are going to get interesting.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'm going to be the devil's advocate here. How is your interaction with the chimps any different than anyone else's? Plus I don't recall you mentioning that Marcel was used in the entertainment industry, therefore perhaps this indicates that there is no difference. I do enjoy your posts, however you have to realize that you are not a chimpanzee or a bonobo yourself. Your interaction with these monkey's is the same as any human interaction (minus the ones that are beating the monkeys).

Dear Devil's advocate,
Thank you so much for your comment. I think your perception of researchers is a common one, especially about researchers in sanctuaries. Thank you for sharing.

The difference between researchers who work in sanctuaries and people who have chimps as pets (incl. those who work in the entertainment industry) is

1. Sanctuary chimps live in a huge forests with other chimps. They live in a natural social group, forage trees for fruit, and live similarly the way they do in the wild. Pet chimps grow up alone, in a confined space, with humans. They are often heavily disciplined to control them when they start behaving the way they would in a forest, ie. breaking the family china

2. Sanctuary chimps are orphans. Their mothers were shot in the bushmeat trade. Pet chimps were forcefully taken from their mothers so they could be handreared to be more human like

3. Sanctuary chimps will live their whole lives in a forest with other chimps just like them. There is a chance that in the future they will be released back into the wild.
Pet chimps grow to about 7 or 8 and then they become unmanagable and violent. They are then sent to biomedical facilities or somewhere similar to live out the rest of their 40 years in a cage.

4. Pet chimps fuel the pet trade in Africa, and sanctuaries stop it. Because once a chimpanzee is forcefully confiscated from poachers, there has to be somewhere to put them, unless you want to shoot them in the head.

If you want to know more about sanctuaries and why they exist, and how and why we do research there, go to www.eva.mpg.de/3chimps/sanctuaries.htm

From Happy birthday mummy

Anonymous said...

Hey Vanessa,
Why is it that Bonobos never have any STI's???? If humans were to behave this way in hunter gather societies of prehistoric times they would have been wiped out long ago. Prior to the advent of antibiotics even a urinary tract infection could kill. PID, Syphilis, viral illnesses just to name a few would have had devestated effects on human populations. Thoughts?

Hi Anon,
Bonobos have these cauliflower warts all over their penises. So this could be an STI that bonobos have. We know that other primates have STIs. But there really hasn't been any research on lethal STIs in bonobos. But interestingly enough, chimpanzees get HIV, but it doesn't develop into AIDS and kill them, like it does in humans. So one idea is that chimps have lived with HIV for so long that their immune system has evolved to handle it.

From Across the Congo river

Obi-wan Cenody said...

I'm curious, do the bonobos or chimps recognize you when you return after being gone for several months? And do you actually believe there ever could be a Planet of the Apes?

Bonobos and chimps recognise people as easily as we recognise them. So while at the start we look the same, after you work for them for a while, they remember you. So Tambikisa, a chimp who was only 3 last year, hasn't seen me for 12 months but when I walked into the forest she jumped into my arms and sucked on my cheek, even though she is gigantically fat now and nearly broke my arms. The chimps I didn't know took I lot longer to approach me.



By Planet of the Apes, do you mean a bunch of chimps that live like people, driving cars, eating with chopsticks etc? I don't think so. Apes are not humans. They never will be. Something changed in us, millions of years ago that allowed us incredible creativity and flexibility. What our research is interested in looking at is what changed and why.

From Kata is better

Jerolyn said...

I'm with anonymous, WHAT exactly DO you do with the spiders(and their million babies)? Obviously they are too large to SMACK with a shoe, throw a shovel at it perhaps? eeewww I am so freaked out by that picture yet I keep looking at it to make sure I'm still THAT freaked out about it.....and that would be a YES!

Hey Jerolyn,

Check out this...


It was gigantic. It had giant mandibles (mouthparts) and a stinger in its mouth and its bum. It took 4 hours for it to die. This is the can of insecticide it took to kill it.



From Kikwit

Anonymous said...

Saw this online ..do you really masturbate them?? or this faulty reporting?

http://bendigo.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=lifestyle%20news&subclass=habitat&story_id=1063668&category=environment

"They also communicate through touch, but while infants want cuddles for reassurance, older bonobos require the researchers to masturbate them during scientific tests. "When we have them in the testing room and they don't understand what's going on, they will scream and screech. They have a high-pitched voice and will waggle their crotch towards us. At the beginning I thought, 'Do we really have to?' But it's more like if we don't do it now they will not do the test.

"It calms them down, it regulates tension, it reassures them that you are friendly and that you have friendly intentions and you won't hurt them."

Weeeeeeeeell, it's not so much we give them a hand job, its more that the girls want to g-g rub you and if you hold out your hand they will drag their clitoruses across it a few times, and the boys just want a reassuring pat on their penis. Does that count?



From Playing ball

Jason J. Loya said...

This is extraordinary. As you said above, I had never heard of these guys before. Is there any way a species like this could be relocated (partially of course) to a different area of the world so they could breed and grow in number? I feel like intelligent relatives such as these should not be threatened due to man made war. Could they live somewhere else outside of captivity? In any case, this is a really cool blog. A rare gem with some wonderful, interesting, and valuable content. Thank you!

Bonobos only live in the Democraic Republic of Congo, and are very specifically evolved to live in this area. Relocating them to another part of the world would be like chucking an Amazonian river dolphin into a bathtub and expecting them to survive.

Having said that, Lola ya bonobo sanctuary is working on a release project, to release some of the Lola bonobos back into the wild. Hopefully, if all the bonobos die out (heaven forbid), there will be a reserve population. Much like the wolves in Yellowstone National Park.


From Uh oh...

Well, now that your mother has seen the blob, she knows that she can start worrying as of this very second about ebola, about rebels with machetes... Actually, there is no point in worrying because nothing has ever stopped you from living life passionately. I shall celebrate quietly with a gin and tonic when I hear that you are back safe and sound from Kinsasha, yet again.

Your mother.

It's a BLOG mum. Not a blob. A BLOG.

An educated man

Yesterday evening, a man yanked open the door of our car.

'Are you JGI?'

'That's the director right there,' I said pointing to Rebeca.

'You take chimps right?'

'What?'

'You take chimps. Because I've just bought one of the bloody things.'

Oh shit. Apparently the man, a botanist professor, was in one of the national parks and saw a baby chimp for sale. He bought it.

'We can't take it,' Rebeca said flatly. 'We have too many.'

'But you're JGI!' yelled the botanist. 'You have millions.'

'Did you buy the chimp?' asked Brian.

'Yes.'

'Well that was your first mistake. When I go back to that forest, there'll be 10 baby chimps there.'

So an educated man, a European professor, was yelling at JGI for not taking a chimp he paid for.
I couldn't understand why he didn't get that what he'd done was a problem. And if someone like him didn't understand, what chance did we have?

I think a lot about the state of the human condition. We live in Germany. I've spoken to enough Germans to know they are still being punished for what happened to the Jews in WWII.

'How could you just let it happen?' Total strangers ask Germans who weren't even born.

But I think I know. When we first came to Congo two years ago, trucks were carrying giant logs out of the forest. The trees were so big, that only one or two could fit on a truck. Yesterday, on the way to Pointe Noire, I saw another one. The tree trunks were smaller.



Rebeca said she never sees the big trunks any more. They've all been cut down. At a talk in Berlin, a paper showed a map of how much of Central Africa was promised to logging contracts. Almost all of People's Republic of Congo was gone. The government sold their massive trees for about US$40 each.



And watching that logging truck, with the much diminished tree trunks, I knew I was witnessing something terrible. Something whose consequence would be felt generations into the future. But I was overcome with a strange mixture of despair and helplessness. And I did nothing.

Nazi Germany could have happened anywhere. Because when people see something awful, something on a such massive scale they feel powerless in the face of it, we chose the easy way.



So the botanist who saw the baby chimp with a chain around his neck, he felt bad, he wanted to stop feeling bad, so he bought it without thinking about what this would mean for the guy who shot the chimp's family and just made more money than he made in a month by killing them.

So in the end, I understand human nature a little more every day. But I wish we could change. I wish we could. I wish...