Gorilla reunion

Click on the “Gorilla Reunion”  link above to see one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever seen. It is the reunion of a man named Damian Aspinall and a gorilla named Kwibi. Damian raised Kwibi until he was five and then released him back into the wild in West Africa. Five years later, he returned to reunite with a now ten-year-old Kwibi.

Help Spread the Word!!!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Kanzi with Lexicon video from the Great Ape Trust

Most Bonobo Lovers are doubtless familiar with the outstanding work by Sue
Savage-Rumbaugh with a group of bonobos, the most famous member being Kanzi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzi.

I have had the privilege of getting to know Sue, and a few months ago had
the amazing experience of visiting her and the bonobo group at the Great Ape
Trust of Iowa in Des Moines http://www.greatapetrust.org/. I was allowed to
go inside the glass enclosure such that there was only a chicken-wire-type
separation between me and them, so there I was, experiencing their reality
after many years of being a fan in the bleachers. Kind of like it must have
been in the ’60s if you got to be in the front row of a Beatles concert!

I had cool interactions with Kanzi’s foster mother Matata (his birth mother
is Lorel, Lucy’s mom in I’m Lucy) and with his sister Panbanisha
http://www.greatapetrust.org/bonobo/meet/panbanisha.php, but most of the
time Kanzi and I sat, face-to-face, as close to one another as we could get
given the chicken wire, staring into each other’s eyes and hanging out.
Occasionally he’d indicate something on his keyboard, but mostly it was me
telling him how wonderful I thought he was and his apparently taking it in
with deep pleasure.

While it’s obvious in the photographs in I’m Lucy, it was only after looking
into Kanzi’s eyes that I took in the fact that bonobo irises go across the
whole eye rather than being a central circles surrounded by white like our
eyes. This has the amazing consequence that it feels like gazing into dark
pools of, well, wisdom. I sometimes have trouble making prolonged eye
contact with another human — there’s this tendency to look away — but with
Kanzi I think we could have done it all day.

The facilities at the Great Ape Trust are splendid — lots of uncultivated
land where they can wander about and set up their own activities. I’ll be
reporting on all this in future posts. Meanwhile, here’s to Sue and the many
others at Great Ape Trust who are caring so kindly for these bonobos and
helping us understand their extraordinary capabilities.

Help Spread the Word!!!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

I go to Jacksonville, Florida once or twice a year to document Lucy growing up. I have being going there since 2004 when Lucy was one. (Lucy was born December 1, 2003) .

I was there last March, 2009, and just at that time Kuni (Kaleb’s mom) became pregnant with the baby due in late October.

It was decided that I should come around November 7th when the baby would be a few weeks old and I would photograph it.  I made my plane reservation in July!

When I arrived with my camera equipment to the platform where I was to photograph, Kuni and her baby girl were not out on exhibit. The baby had been born on November 6! She was barely one day old! She was kept inside with her support group consisting of Lucy, Lorell and Aquili (the possible Dad) because the keepers wanted to keep an eye on her to make sure she was nursing enough.

However, on Sunday, I was invited to be in the back to observe Kuni and the baby. I was given a notebook and pencil and asked to keep notes on the nursing. The baby nursed plenty I was happy to report.

I sat in a chair and watched the group for FOUR hours.  As we know bonobos get the same illnesses that humans do so I had had my TB test, and needed to wear a mask over my nose and mouth the entire time I was there.

The next day Kuni and her baby (as yet unnamed) were out on exhibit. I got the pictures. Delfi Messinger, the Director of Animals at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, used these two pictures to make the announcement of the new baby bonobo.

Help Spread the Word!!!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Our favorite 11-year-old, James Brooks, in cooperation with the Canadian Ape Alliance, has started a project called 1000 Classrooms. James hopes to get 1000 western classrooms to donate $3 each to buy a dozen eggs from the widows of Park Rangers killed protecting the apes. The eggs will be given to the children at the Kahuzi-Biega Environmental School in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Because of this purchase, the widows earn an income, the children and teachers are given nutritious food and the apes are safer because there is less demand for food!

The Eggs for Kids Program makes sure every kid and every teacher gets an egg per day!
So how can you help? Any classroom can get involved from preschool to University. All you have to do is talk to your teachers and ask them to visit www.1000classrooms.org.
Each and every kid can make a big difference with only a small donation!

Help Spread the Word!!!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Bonobos have been thought to only hunt small rodents, squirrels and forest antelopes. But a recent study published by Martin Surbeck and Gottfried Hohmann in the Oct. 14th issue of Current Biology, says something else. Researchers reported the first evidence of wild bonobos hunting and eating the young of other primate species – not apes, but small monkeys.

The interesting thing about the bonobo’s hunting pattern is that they, unlike chimpanzees, include the females in the hunting process. For chimps hunting is about male dominance and bonding. The involvement of the females in the hunt may reflect the bonobo’s social patterns.

The recent study is making people really stop, think and look deeper because bonobos have been featured as being peaceful and non-violent and now because of this study, some people are assuming this is no longer true.

With all of these new discoveries, we were eager to talk to our partner, Sally Jewell Coxe, the President of the Bonobo Conservation Initiative. Here’s what she has to say on the matter:

“It is a fascinating and important discovery, which certainly merits further investigation—to learn if this is a cultural, site-specific phenomenon, as it has never been observed at other study sites—and to fully understand its context and implications. It is interesting to note, as Surbeck and Hohmann’s paper does, that at one site, bonobos have been observed to engage in mutual grooming with colobus monkeys and at another location, when bonobos opportunistically caught monkeys, they did not eat them.

However, what I find particularly curious is the fact that the media seems to be using this new evidence to go on a feeding frenzy of its own!  If one judged by the surge of headlines hitting the press, you’d think that bonobos were violent warmongers, which is certainly not the case.

For example, the Reuters headline, “Hippie apes make war as well as love,” gives a false impression. Hunting does not constitute war-making nor does predation constitute aggression. Bonobos do not wage “war” against other bonobo groups, in contrast to the deadly, premeditated attacks witnessed between chimpanzee groups fighting over territory.  To make matters worse, the lead sentence of the Reuters article falsely states that “bonobos actually hunt and eat other great apes.”  Monkeys are NOT apes! Nor do bonobos even share the same habitat with any of the other great ape species.  It’s a shame that a respected news outlet such as Reuters failed to get the most basic facts straight.

While this notable discovery does increase our knowledge about bonobo behavior, it does not negate the fact that bonobos maintain a markedly cooperative and peaceful society.”

Help Spread the Word!!!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Recently, we talked about how bonobos and chimpanzees are different…but we also noted that they are alike. They split into separate species 2 million years ago, but in the grand scheme of things, that’s fairly recent! Here are the many ways bonobos and chimpanzees are alike:

• They are both great apes, the largest of all primates.
• They are about the same size.
• Their arms are longer than their legs, and they can move using all four limbs simultaneously.
• They both have thumbs and opposable big toes used for holding on to things and climbing.
• Their hair evenly covers their entire body.
• Both bonobos and chimps eat plants, fruit, and insects.
• The females of both species carry baby for similar amounts of time and then care for them for many years (5-8) before the Females have similar gestation lengths and adults provide care to offspring for many years before they are self-sufficient.
• Bonobo and chimpanzee females usually give birth to one infant every five or six years.
• As great apes, they both have incredible mental abilities as compared to all other primates.
• They both live wildly in Africa.
• Both apes split their time between the ground and the trees and make nests in the trees for sleeping.
• Due to environmental concerns, habitat destruction and bushmeat hunting, both apes are in danger and need our help.

Help Spread the Word!!!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Many people get confused and think that bonobos are just small, or pigmy, chimps – but they aren’t. The two apes became separate species about 2 million years ago and while they do have many similarities, they are noticeably different. Here’s how:

• Bonobos are thinner, have smaller heads and ears than chimps – and their straight black hair parts right down the middle of their heads.
• Bonobo faces are black from birth, with pink lips, and chimpanzee infants have light faces.
• Chimps hunt and eat small animals while bonobos do not.
• Bonobos only live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while chimps are found throughout western and central Africa.
• Bonobos easily walk upright; chimps walk primarily on all fours.
• Bonobos live in a matriarchal society where the top female is the leader of the group. Chimps have a patriarchal society where the males rule.
• While bonobos fight sometimes, they solve their tensions with touch and food, and there has been no documentation of them killing each other. Chimpanzees do fight and actually wage war in their societies.
• In bonobo societies, sons form strong bonds with their mothers that last into adulthood. In chimp societies, it’s the daughters and the mothers that have the lasting bond.
• There are currently 203,000 chimpanzees living in the wild, and only an estimated 10,000 bonobos.

Can you guess which picture is the bonobo and which is the chimpanzee?

Help Spread the Word!!!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

After an intense survey through the Republic of Congo (just west of the Democratic Republic of Congo), researchers discovered more than 125,000 west lowland gorillas. Previous to this study, scientists estimated their population at about 100,000, so this find more than doubles their numbers.

The survey, completed by the Wildlife Conservation Society, is wonderful news, but experts are urging the world to let it motivate them to do more. Primate populations continued to be harmed around the world due to habitat destruction and hunting for trade, food and medicinal purposes. Finding these gorillas means that we have the opportunity to work hard to save great apes before they are deeper in crisis…before their numbers are horrifically low, before it’s too late.

Photos: Thomas Breuer/Wildlife Conservation Society-Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Help Spread the Word!!!

Powered by Bookmarkify™

This picture taken by Marian Brickner is of Lucy’s Aunt Louise and her son Virgil looking into a frozen bucket of Kool-Aid at the CIncinnati Zoo. When we first saw the picture, we thought it looked like the bonobos were laughing, so we asked Marian about that day.

She told us, “They ARE laughing. The Kool-Aid had sunflower seeds and raisins in it, they eventually got it all out – in bucket form.”

Louise is the younger sister of Lorel (Lucy’s mom). Virgil is 11 years-old here and Louise is about 34.
We love her hand on his back.

Help Spread the Word!!!

Powered by Bookmarkify™