Check out the January issue of Animal World USA Magazine by clicking on the cover and downloading the pdf. A fantastic review of I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo appears on page 10!

http://www.animalworldusa.org

Then be sure to read on as this is a fantastic magazine dedicated to the world’s animals and the people who love them! Also, make sure to check out Animal World USA’s “Weeks for the Animals” to see if your city has one coming soon.

http://www.weeksfortheanimals.org

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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.

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Check out our latest video about our Clean Up the Beach event! Spread the word!

Bonobo Kids and I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo are working hard to teach kids and their families about bonobo apes AND about the important connection between bonobos and people. Actually, that connection exists between all things and beings – plants, animals, people. We are all connected and our daily actions have a real effect on our world. Be part of the solution!

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Just before our ‘Yo Kids! Clean up the Beach’ Event, Mathea, author of I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo was interviewed on Plum TV about the book, bonobos and Bonobo Kids…Check it out!

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The I’m Lucy booksigning and beach clean-up event was a huge success! Here’s what we did: author, Mathea Levine, signed books and read the story several time and we gave 20% off of the book for all kids that brought in trash from our local beaches.

WHY? Because we didn’t want to just do a booksigning. We wanted kids to do something good for our environment. We want kids to understand that when we clean up our own backyards, the positive effects are felt across the planet – even all the way to the bonobos in Africa.

• There were wonderful articles published in both the Martha’s Vineyard Times and the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette.
• We had eye-catching ads and posters that featured our sponsors.
• Mathea and the event were featured on Plum TV.
• We had great food at the event.
• We sold many books.
• We cleaned up some major beach.
• One family brought enough trash from Philbin to fill the back of their SUBURBAN.
• This same family has decided to make beach clean-up be an annual tradition – a way to say thanks to the island at the end of each summer.
• We made a great video (now in production) of the event.
• The winning trash family was awarded a bonobo adoption in their names (proceeds supporting our frontline partner, Bonobo Conservation Initiative and their new adopt program – more details coming soon!)
• We generated enough island sponsors to donate I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo to every island library, school, daycare and kid-included social service agency on the island (totaling 26 donations!)

A HUGE thank you to all of our generous sponsors and community supporters who donated their time, services and/or money to our event last weekend:

South Mountain Company (a green building company)

MV Fiber Farm (the world’s first natural fiber (wool) CSA (community supported agriculture)

Suzanne Lanzone & Daughters (a realtor dedicated to conservation)

Writing Roads (a writing & marketing company specializing in blogging and Web 2.0)

Elizabeth Whelan (a most fantastic graphic designer and illustrator)

Table Talk Cookbook (the family cookbook with tons of heart and a focus on local)

Randi Baird Photography (photographer extraordinaire specializing in the documentation of environmental activism)

EcoMV (the store that is making a different with sustainable, eco-friendly products for life)

Allied Waste (our partners that hauled all of the trash away!)

DaRosa’s Printing

UPDATE: Here’s another great story about kids cleaning up in Georgia!

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Senator Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are doing their best to walk the walk at the National Convention in Denver this week. In terms of the environment, they are showing their dedication to protect our planet by using green products, services and companies in all aspects of the Convention.

They are also holding an event to feature green technologies and jobs, to get national leaders, businesses owners, scientists and 25,000 graduate students from around the country on the same page concerning sustainable technologies and products. This event is incredibly inspiring because education and information sharing are two of the best ways to build the green movement and create real change for the environment.

One of the green companies asked to contribute to the Convention with products and the green event as a speaker and leader in the field is Martha’s Vineyard’s own Mark Martin. Mark’s company, Eco MV, built an innovative store on our island called The Bio Store and it is filled with sustainable, green and eco-safe products – for the kitchen, cleaning products, bath products, toys, clothes (even wedding dresses made of bamboo silk), take-out food containers and the best children’s book in the world – I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo.

We are so thrilled to have Mark, his team and his company on the Vineyard – and we send him a hearty congratulations for being chosen to be part of the Democratic National Convention.

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This post is a Bonobo Kids exclusive. On Labor Day weekend, August 30th, Mathea will be doing a book signing at one of our favorite book stores on Martha’s Vineyard called Riley’s Reads. But, we didn’t want to just do a book signing, so we’ve organized a huge event that connects kids to their environment. The planned event is called: Kids! Clean up the Beach!!!

Every kid that brings beach trash to the signing gets a severely discounted, personally signed copy of I’m Lucy. With the help of our amazing sponsors, which I will detail in full soon, this event is growing by the second! It’s so perfect: we’ll be sharing I’m Lucy, educating people about bonobos and saving our local environment – all at the same time!

We’ll have video and pics galore…so I’ll keep you posted. Meantime, beg your parents to bring you to Martha’s Vineyard at the end of August – we hope to see you here!!!

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This is the story of our gifted photographer, Marian Brickner’s, journey to Lucy – the star of our book, I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo, and it is the second part of our interview – read part 1 here.

After I read, The Forgotten Ape, I started to look for bonobos in United States zoos. I found out that there is a whole family tree of bonobos starting with Linda, who arrived in 1962. I began to take my idea about using photography to change people’s perceptions about hurting other beings and transform it again. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if I could do something photographically to show kids that bonobos have families, how much they are like us.’ I hoped that would help them be interested in wanting to help bonobos.

I went to the Milwaukee Zoo first to see Linda and take her picture. I wanted to take pictures of her whole family, so then I went to Fort Worth, Texas to take pictures of Linda’s son, Kevin. When I arrived back at the Milwaukee Zoo with Kevin’s picture, Linda’s keepers couldn’t believe it. “He looks just like his mom!”

Next, I went to San Diego to try to take pictures, and tried to talk to the keepers and take more pictures, but it was very difficult. They were so busy and kept asking, ‘Who are you?’

Then, I had a thought, no one wants to hear doomsday information about the environment. People, myself included want to be inspired and motivated. We want fun and happy. I realized, what could be more fun and happy than children of any kind – so I started looking for bonobo kids to photograph.

So, I tried another zoo that had bonobos – the Jacksonville Zoo. I called ahead of time and talked to a wonderful man named Craig. He was so welcoming and told me to come on down. He said he couldn’t wait to meet me.

When I arrived, the first thing I noticed about the bonobo exhibit was that there is no glass so taking pictures is easier and the photos are better. And, then I saw Lucy…and then Kaleb…and the whole family. It was perfect.

This is the very first picture I took of Lucy at the Jacksonville Zoo. The family portrait. She melted my heart, and I hope she melts yours too.

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As I promised yesterday, here is Delfi’s story of bonobos meeting in the Zoo. Delfi is the Director of Animal Programs at the Jacksonville Zoo and was instrumental in allowing our photographer, Marian Brickner, to document the lives of Lucy and her family for our children’s book, I‘m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo.

This is the story of a male being introduced to the bonobo family at his new zoo home, starting with one of the established females and her son.

Their first meeting went very well. They did the things that bonobos do when they first meet such as touch each other, look each other over, make a lot of fun bonobo noise, share food and establish dominance. Apparently this male was quite the gentleman and made no threatening gestures towards the female or her son. He knew his place – meaning that he understood full well that this new female friend ranked higher than him. As he moved towards the food, she expertly blocked his path – essentially controlling the food stash – and he politely moved in a different direction; he did what she told him to do!

But, this is our favorite, favorite part of the story. After their first meeting, the zookeepers routinely separate the bonobos once again until their next meeting. They split the bonobos up by guiding them each through separate doors, and it’s done. But the next time they brought these two bonobos together, the apes knew what was coming. When the zookeepers started the process to separate them, the male and female bonobos refused to part. They moved together closely and would not let go so that as the zookeepers encouraged them to move through each door, they did so together. They outsmarted the zookeepers who had no choice but to leave them together for that time.

More from our Delfi interview coming soon!

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Lucy doing a handstand! She’s so big now! photo by Marian Brickner

Delfi Messinger is the Director of Animal Programs at the Jacksonville Zoo, home of Lucy, Kaleb, Lorel and Lexi. And, YES, this means that she can go see the bonobos whenever she wants! Delfi was also a key player in the creation of I’m Lucy. Without her kindness, her love for bonobos and her gracious permission for our photographer, Marian Brickner, to take a zillion pictures of Lucy and her family, this book would not exist today. Many, many thanks to you, Delfi.

We got the chance to talk to Delfi the other day and, literally, had to force ourselves to hang up the phone. She has so many incredible stories, we could have listened all day.

We originally contacted Delfi because of the post we wrote on May 6th where we wondered: are zoos good or bad? This post has been read more than any other post and folks seem very passionate about the subject…so we wanted to go straight to the source at one of our favorite zoos, and see what’s up. Here’s what she had to say:

Bonobo Kids: We know that there are good zoos and bad zoos – and we know that Jacksonville is a very good zoo. Can you tell us why?

Delfi: I’d love to use bonobos specifically to illustrate this point – they are such a great example of why Jacksonville is such a good zoo.

First, we’re an AZA (Association of Zoos & Aquariums) zoo, and incidentally all bonobos in the U.S. are in AZA zoos which means they are in the best facilities in terms of care and conservation and education. The bonobos in Europe are in the European equivalent of AZA zoos.

Jacksonville got the bonobos in 1998, so we’ve had them for 10 years. And one of the cool things about this zoo, like San Diego (which also has bonobos) is that we have pretty good, warm weather, so the bonobos get to be outside most of the year. We always keep them as close as we can to their real habitat. We pay close attention to the rule that what goes on in mother nature is essential to meeting the apes’ psychological and emotional natures.

For example, with bonobos, they stay with their mothers for years, nursing until they are about five. Then, the males continue to stay with their mothers for life, and it’s the females that leave the group when they are teenagers (around 10 years old) – then, they bond with the females of a new group. This is markedly different from other animal groups, where it’s the male that leaves. As a zoo community, we need to facilitate this natural movement, and we have to do it across zoo lines.

So, back to why Jacksonville is such a great zoo. We work closely with Species Survival Plan (SSP) to manage our bonobos. Many endangered zoo animals are managed by SSPs. They monitor all of the bonobos and help facilitate the survival of the species. They incorporate many factors to do this, including, talking to the IRs (Institutional Representatives) which includes people like me and the actual bonobo handlers at the zoos and direct knowledge of the bonobos’ actual personalities. For instance, you would need to be careful with the move of a super dominate female because she needs to get along with the other females at the new zoo. The SSP also studies the genetics of each animal as well, making sure that new family pairings will create strong baby bonobos, ensuring their survival.

Coming tomorrow: The story of a bonobo arrival at the Jacksonville Zoo…our favorite bonobo story to date!

Delfi also has a wonderful blog where she talks about her amazing work saving bonobos and chimps in Africa and her daily work at the Jacksonville Zoo. You’ll see some great photos of Lucy, Kaleb and the rest of the bonobo crew!

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