Our long lost cousins

Imagine a relative who thinks sex is like a handshake. Who organises orgies with the neighbours, doesn’t mind if their partner sleeps around, and firmly believes females should be in charge of everything. Imagine there was a whole tribe of these relatives – crazy yes? But definitely a lot of fun.

Bonobo share 98.7% of our DNA, equal to our more famous cousins, chimpanzees. But unlike chimps, we know hardly anything about them.

Lola ya Bonobo is the only bonobo sanctuary in the world. All the bonobos are orphans, their parents killed for the bushmeat trade. At Lola, the bonobos live in a 30 hectare forest, are visited by over 15,000 Congolese school children every year, and will soon be released into the wild.

Follow the lives of our bonobos, and to donate, visit www.friendsofbonobos.org/support.htm


Thursday, July 16, 2009

Marie Laure has a moment


Marie Laure is our head vet now, and here she is having a quiet moment under our brand new sign! It reads 'Ekolo ya Bonobo' which is Lingala for 'place of the bonobos'. Marie Laure's dad was a doctor in Congo 20 years ago, and Claudine was always calling him to help with the bonobos. Now his daughter is the head vet at Lola - nice cosmic energy about that, isn't there?

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