We were so lucky to interview wildlife adventure photographers Adam Bates and Julie Calvert of Shutterspeed Travel after they spent two weeks at Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary in Africa’s DRC. Lola does the amazing work of rescuing young bonobos orphaned by the hunting and habitat destruction in the Democratic Republic of Congo. About 50 bonobos - babies, adolescents and adults - live at the Sanctuary and heal, grow and play. The goal is to release them back into the wild as their African rainforest grows safer…in the meantime, Lola is on the edge of the rainforest, so the apes are living as if they are in their natural habitat. Adam and Julie played, watched and photographed Lola’s bonobos, and they were gracious enough to tell us all about this once in a lifetime experience. They had so much to tell us, that we’ll be breaking this interview into several posts.

For all of you non-Brits - beware, Adam and Julie have very thick British accents (yes, even on paper)…enjoy this as it only adds to the wonder of their adventure!

Bonobo Kids: Tell us what it was like to watch the bonobos in action!

Adam: Well, it was very hot, and we were suffering seriously from the heat and humidity, but the bonobos are like nutters with so much energy! Especially the little ones – they do these whirly whirlies – whizzing themselves around all over the place. We were waiting for them to tip over from all of their spinning and then they would! They’d fall over, look up bemused and then start again – spin, spin, spin. They had so much energy - wrestling, jumping in the water, very curious about everything.

Julie: They really reminded us of humans. The young bonobos would egg each other on playing tag, kung fu kicking each other and then running away. The adolescents were just past the craziness of the young bonobos, but they still had tons of energy and played a lot. They ignored the babies, but the babies watched them and imitated them and tried to play with them anyway…totally like human big kids and little kids!

Adam: The way they parent is what we would call ‘extended parenting’ with not only mothers but also aunts taking care of all of the young ones. The adults would be laying on their backs, chewing on grass and watching the babies, and then if they thought the babies were getting to wild, they’d reach out and grab one of them and sit them down until they were calm or until they broke free…then, of course they’d run all over the place again like crazy nutters!

Coming soon: Life in the Lola Ya Bonobo nursery…

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