It’s true – there is a connection! Did you know that regular old crayons (think Crayola) have petroleum in them? Petroleum is a fossil fuel – we often call it ‘oil’ and it runs cars, heats homes, etc. Is this something you want in your crayons?

We don’t think so because:

• Petroleum can cause health problems – it’s pretty intense stuff! Have you ever smelled the fumes when your parents are filling up your car at the gas station?

• Petroleum is TERRIBLE for the environment: When people drill for oil, they destroy the land above the oil which hurts creatures’ natural habitats, plants & trees.

• During the transport of oil, there have been several oil spills which cause severe damage to ocean ecosystems. There was recently a spill at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

• As petroleum is burned for energy, carbon-dioxide is released into the air which contributes to global warming.
• Wars are fought over oil. Ever heard of the Middle East?

• In the summer of 2007, oil was discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at Lake Albert – home of our beloved bonobos. Humans are so desperate to get the oil that they hurt each other, the land of the DRC and the bonobos & other creatures living there in the process.

Here’s what you can do:

Ask your parents, your teachers and your school to get non-petroleum crayons!

There is a safe, non-toxic brand of crayons that is petroleum-free called STOCKMAR!!!
Visit their site here! They are made with beeswax and they are super sturdy which means they won’t break in half when you are drawing really hard!
Have fun – and tell everyone you know. If everyone uses petroleum-free crayons, there will be one less reason for oil drillers to disrupt the natural habitats of the bonobos and other wonderful creatures!

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Did you know that the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. recently passed a bill that calls for strict changes for the car industry? The bill has to get approved or passed by the House and the Senate and then it becomes a law.

This bill tells the country to help clean up pollution using their cars. It requires $21 billion in new taxes, mostly on the oil (fuel) industry, and it states that electric utilities must get 15 percent of their power from alternative sources, like wind or the sun.

We think this bill is awesome! It would make the auto industry 40% better at being clean and helping the environment.

Here’s the problem: there are a bunch of people that don’t like this bill! We know, it’s hard to believe! They don’t want to help the environment because it will cost them a lot of money (because they make their money from the oil industry)– they are only looking at tomorrow, and we want them to look at 10 years from now!

Because 10 years from now is your future…we want you to help by writing to your Senator and ask them to please sign this bill and help turn it into a law.

Get the email and snailmail address of your Senator here. And then write them a letter. We’d also love to see your letters and we’ll post some on the blog – so that we can share ideas with each other about what to say to get the votes!!!

Thanks, Bonobo Kids – you are the best!

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We live on the most beautiful island in the world - according to us. Our island is called Martha’s Vineyard, and it sits in the Atlantic Ocean about 7 miles off of Cape Cod’s coast in Massachusetts. It’s spring here, and all of the flowers are blooming - tulips, daffodils, dandelions and huckleberries. Our organic garden is literally erupting with lettuce, leeks, chard and parsley. The trees have tiny buds. The birds are singing, singing, singing. The dogs and cats are lazing in the sun. It’s a warm 65 degrees.

When we look out the window, there is a sweetness that fills us that we can hardly put into words. As we breathe in the flower-filled air, that sweetness turns into inspiration; that inspiration turns into action. We want everyone to be surrounded by this kind of beauty, this quiet, this safety.

Martha’s Vineyard is one of our inspirations for Bonobo Kids, and we’re going to keep staring out that window at all of this goodness - because when you concentrate on good, more good comes flying at you. Good is a magnet.

Where do you live? What do you love about it? What about your homeland inspires you to make a difference in the world? Comment below - we can’t wait to hear from YOU.

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What rainforest destruction looks like.

As you know, the bonobos live in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Africa. You also know that losing the rainforests due to deforestation (taking the trees for lumber and paper) means more than just losing the rainforests. It means losing the bonobos and countless other creatures that live in the rainforest. It means terrible damage to the Earth’s fragile environment because the plants and trees in the rainforest breathe in carbon dioxide so that it doesn’t move into our atmosphere and damage the ozone layer.

We found a great website, www.mongabay.com, that provides great information about rainforests all over the world, including the DRC. Like all of us at Bonobo Kids, they are working hard to save the rainforests and their creatures. They also see the big picture and they have some great ideas for how to help.

Here is the Mongabay list for saving rainforests and entire ecosystems around the world by focusing on “TREES”:
Teach others about the importance of the environment and how they can help rainforests.
Restore damaged ecosystems by planting trees on land where forests have been cut down.
Encourage people to live in a way that doesn’t hurt the environment
Establish parks to protect rainforests and wildlife
Support companies that operate in ways that minimize damage to the environment [and don’t use companies and products like DOVE from UNILEVER that do major damage - see yesterday’s post!]

We love the way they spelled TREES with their solutions.
Your bonobokids challenge: Put TREES into action and let us know how you do it!!! We know you’ll think of awesome ways to save our world!!!

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We are overwhelmed by the number of awesome Earth Day events that have taken place over the last week!

Here are some of our favorites:

1. Greenpeace has started a campaign called the International Dove Campaign to stop deforestation, species extinction and global climate destruction. The maker of Dove soap, Unilever, uses palm oil as a main ingredient and the company harvesting the palm oil for them is destroying the Indonesian rainforests to make their palm plantations (or farms). One of the many species in serious danger is our ape cousin, the orangutan. Watch their 1-minute video and take action online today.

2. In Arizona, elementary school kids released 300,000 ladybugs into their town as a natural remedy for a cumbersome pest. Aphids are tiny little bugs that eat and destroy plants, and ladybugs are their natural predators. What a cool and colorful idea…Where we grew up, ladybugs were good luck - 300,000 pieces of good luck sounds fantastic!

3. We’d rather you were out doing then watching TV, but Nickelodeon had eco-friendly shows on all day during Earth Day and showcased real kids doing real things for the environment. They’ve also launched a cool, new website, www.thebiggreenhelp.com where you can learn more about saving the environment and play green video games.

4. Scholastic books published the results of a survey where they asked kids how they thought we were doing in our environmental efforts. Kids gave us an ‘F’ for how we’ve done so far. Here are some other cool stats:

54% of kids said that "global climate change" is the most important
environmental issue facing the world today.
77% of kids think we should "figure out new ways to recycle old stuff"
as a way to deal with our trash.
52% of kids think that solar power is the most promising alternative
energy resource.
7% of kids say they are willing to do "nothing" to stop global
warming.
85% of kids say that responsibility for the environment belongs to
everyone (not just the government, scientists or adults).

5. Many websites and bloggers told the world about great books that teach kids about ‘going green’…we are so pleased to be among so many books that teach children about the environment and the earth’s special creatures!

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People ask us this all the time! And, we love the question. Here is our answer:

I’m Lucy was really written for everyone. It may appear to be a children’s book. But that fact makes it accessible to everyone. Think about it: if it was a 300 page non-fiction book, little kids couldn’t also learn from it or enjoy it. And, it would take a long time to read it and understand its message. But I’m Lucy, with its pictures and fun words, is easily read, enjoyed and understood by everyone. The message is clear: bonobos are adorable, bonobos are a lot like us, bonobos need our help. So far, every person who has seen the book has enjoyed it - whether they are 1, 3, 5, 10, 16, 24, 37, 48, 53, 65 or 79!

I’m Lucy is meant to be shared. Little kids can’t get enough of it and they need parents, teachers or big sisters to read to them. Older kids who find it easier to read books with less print and enjoy pictures love it. We want this book to bring people together, to start conversations - in school or at home. Whether it is plucked off the library shelf or your coffee table.

Some stories from our readers:

Sasha, one of our 3 year-old readers from Washington D.C. takes her book to school with her everyday and asks her teacher to read it out loud.

Marian, our photographer, read the book and showed her slides to residents of a retirement home, and all of the attendees fell in love with Lucy and her family

And, afterall, I’m Lucy is written about a young bonobo, so we tried to create words, colors and images that reflect Lucy’s very self. A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo is a total experience for every reader - young, old and in-between.

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I’m Lucy’s fabulous photographer, Marian Brickner, traveled to Jacksonville, Florida this weekend to celebrate Earth Day with Lucy and her bonobo family. Marian had a sweet two-table spread piled high with brochures, postcards and books, and she met many wonderful families. As always, she was eager to share her love for the bonobos and to spread the word about all things I’m Lucy and Bonobo Kids.

Here is one happy family buying I’m Lucy:

The Chapman-Sagan Family has been emailing with Marian and reported that they’ve already read the book many times! We understand that it’s addictive - our little ones make us read the book over and over and over again!!! Another family just told us that their 3 year-old daughter takes her book to pre-school EVERY day.

The greatest news is that the Earth Day visitors bought every I’m Lucy book from the Jacksonville Zoo’s store!!! We sold out! To get your copy visit www.bonobokids.org and click on BUY THE BOOK!

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From time to time, we will take the passenger seat and let someone else do the blogging - it could be a person who works with bonobos, a primatologist, a scientist, someone who raises money to help bonobos or someone who just plain loves bonobos! Today, I’m so pleased to introduce you to James Brooks - a 10 year-old, self-proclaimed bonobo fan. James has read everything there is to read about bonobos and other apes, he has raised over $1000 (with plans to raise much more) for bonobos through Bowl for Apes and the generous donation of his birthday and Christmas gifts, he has spent time with bonobos and traveled the world (well, almost) learning and doing. James is an inspiration to us at Bonobo Kids - his passion and his ‘activities for good’ overwhelm us with gratefulness and hope.

James introduced us to a very cool concept called ‘Theory of Mind’ and, without further ado, I’m going to let him tell you all about it….

“Theory of mind” is a term psychologists use that means being able to guess how another person is thinking. Humans develop this ability around the age of two to three and people used to think it was uniquely human. But many studies of other apes show they can have a theory of mind too.

The best experiment with kids for “theory of mind” goes like this: You hide an object like a chocolate bar with two kids in the room and both of them can see that it is being hidden in place 1. Then you take one of the children out of the room and leave one in and move the chocolate bar to a different hiding spot. Then ask the child who saw it moved “where do you think the other child will look for it?”. Children without a theory of mind will say place 2 where the chocolate bar actually is. Children with a theory of mind will say that the child who left the room would look where he/she thought it was which is place 1. Sometimes they do this experiment with the children pointing because sometimes 2 years olds don’t always speak that well.

Non-human apes have proven in lots of experiments that they can have a “theory of mind”. Here is a story about the bonobo, Kanzi and his sister Panbanisha at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa:

One day Kanzi and Panbanisha were each trying to make tools to open a box of food. Kanzi was able to do it but Panbanisha couldn’t make a sharp enough stone. Kanzi tried to help Panbanisha but the scientists would not allow him to so they decided to take Kanzi away. Kanzi hid a stone that he had used where Panbanisha could easily find it and use it. This shows that he is considerate and could think from Panbanisha’s pont of view. He knew what she needed and tried to help her.

Thanks again, James for this awesome information and story…everyone go visit James’ Ape Aware site and blog.

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Lorel and Lucy Kissing

Lorel playing with Lucy

Lexi grooming Lucy

Lorel grooming Lexi

Today is Lorel’s birthday! At 39 years-old, Lorel is an amazing bonobo mama and the mama-star of I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo!

Lorel is the mom of SEVEN children.

Kanzi (10/28/80)
Mabruki (10/23/83)
Brian (01/08/89)
Lisalla (9/24/92)
Lily (12/26/97)
Lexi (12/26/99)
LUCY (12/01/03)

Our fabulous photographer, Marian Brickner, has spent many hours watching and photographing Lorel, Lucy, Lexi and Lily at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida. So we asked her to tell us all about Lorel, and here’s what she had to say:

“Lorel is a great mom. She is patient and gentle with her children and has a sweet smile. Lorel lets Lucy climb and sit on her, using her as a chair, but she doesn’t allow Lucy to JUMP on her. Lorel grooms her children very carefully and gives each one attention.”

Marian is working on a new bonobo book that will trace the incredible family tree of the bonobos living in the U.S. - we can’t wait to see it! In the meantime, she shared a bit more information about Lorel’s family:

“Lorel is the second daughter of Linda, the Matriarch of the U.S. bonobos. Lorel has an older sister who lives in Milwaukee and a younger sister, Louise, who lives in Cincinnati. Her brother, Kevin, lives in Fort Worth, her two sisters Lana and Loretta live in San Diego and Kakowet Jr. lives in Twycross (far away).”

Thank you, Marian, for all of this great information and for your AMAZING photographs!!!

all photos by marian brickner

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You went to school to learn how to do math. You took swim lessons to learn the backstroke. Did you ever wonder how you learned to talk? Human babies learn how to talk by listening to the people around them talk. Our brains are like sponges, taking everything in…until one day, we start to talk. Here’s an example: one day when one of our daughters, Sophie, was about two years old, she saw her mama wearing a silver chain with a green bead around her neck. She picked it up and said, “necklace!” You may not think that was extraordinary or even special, but while her mama rarely wore necklaces and never taught her the word directly, Sophie had heard us talking about them (could have been months before), and she soaked up the information and spit it back out to us when she saw the necklace!

So what on earth does this have to do with bonobos? Well, a famous bonobo named Kanzi learned how to ‘talk’ just like you. Okay, so he doesn’t really know how to talk, but he does know how to communicate. Here’s how it happened. His trainer, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, an American Primatologist, began working with a female, adult bonobo named Matata to see if she could communicate with a lexigram. A lexigram is a plastic keyboard containing buttons with printed symbols substituted for words – the bonobo would point to the button when they wanted to ‘say’, or communicate, that word.

Well, it turned out that Matata, who was 10 years old, was not that interested – she learned about 12 words. Meanwhile, her adopted son, Kanzi, was always present when Sue was teaching Matata. He appeared uninterested and spent his time running around and playing with toys. But then… One day, Matata was taken away to do something else, and Kanzi, all of 2 ½ years old picked up the lexigram and began to communicate with Sue. That first day he communicated 120 distinct phrases (a few words strung together) from his 12 world keyboard. Soon, Kanzi knew so many words, that he outgrew his 256 word lexigram keyboard!!! Just like you and Sophie, Kanzi learned like a sponge…while he was playing, his brain was absorbing words and phrases…until suddenly, he ‘talked’ through the lexigram to his caretakers. Bonobos are so smart and so much like us!!!

Do you know what your first word was? Find out and let us know! Do you have a little brother or sister who is just learning to talk? Be a linguist (a scientist who studies language) and observe how they are learning to talk. Do they repeat things, make up their own words, sing, use sign language??? Report back to us…we can’t wait to hear what you’ve learned!

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