Perry Beeman from The Des Moines Register dug a little deeper into the flood situation at the Iowa Great Ape Trust to discover that the bonobos were in fact a little scared by the rising flood waters, while the orangutans, whose natural habitat regularly floods, were calm, cool and collected. Most fascinating to us bonobo lovers is that we know the bonobos were uncomfortable with the situation not just because of their behavior - and our interpretation of their behavior - but because of Kanzi and his ability to communicate with humans.

Using his lexigram (picture board with symbols representing words and concepts), Kanzi was able to tell his people that he was afraid of ‘water gorillas’ (beavers) and ‘big water’. Thankfully, this communication works both ways and the scientists were able to tell the bonobos that the water would stop and that they’d be okay. Another way that researchers let the apes know that everything was okay was to stick to their routines, making sure to do some of their standard research activities everyday. Click here to read Beeman’s full article.

But the best news is that the flood waters have receded and a massive clean-up is underway. Thankfully the danger has passed, and all of the apes are okay. Good luck to the clean-up crews and everyone at the Great Ape Trust…and thanks for all that you do!

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So, your birthday is coming up – in the next year anyway – and it’s time to decide on your theme. Let’s see…what if you planned an eco-friendly themed party?!?
I’m sure you all have awesome ideas about how to pull this off, but we’ll get the list going…Please write us with your ideas so that we can share them with everyone!

1. Use recycled or biodegradable paper plates, napkins and cups – or even better – use reusable plates, napkins and cups so that you don’t have to throw them away at all.
2. Make your cake and other treats from organic ingredients.
3. Give special party favors to guests that ride bikes or use public transportation to travel to your party.
4. Get outside and make your main activity something that involves the great outdoors like rock climbing, biking, the zoo, sledding, hiking or swimming.
5. Request that guests don’t wrap your presents to save paper – you can keep the element of surprise alive by wearing a blindfold and trying to guess each present.
6. Give a gift. We are all so used to getting things for our birthdays, but why not thank the world for making every day so great! We think a great gift would be a copy of I’m Lucy or a donation to a worthy cause.

Okay. Your turn. What would you do for your GREEN BIRTHDAY PARTY???
We can’t wait to hear!!!

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This is a great question that a visitor to the blog just asked us. The answer is important for everyone to know.

The answer is NO. And not because we don’t want to, but because when you buy I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo anywhere other than this blog or our home site, Bonobo Kids, there are no profits to donate, there is no money left for the bonobos after we’ve paid for our printing and our staff.

Here’s how it works: bookstores (actual stores that you walk into) and online bookstores (like Amazon) buy books at ‘wholesale’ prices which means they get a 50% discount on each book. Then, the booksellers sell the book at ‘retail’ prices (100% or what you pay), and they use the profits to run their stores, pay the staff, make the atmosphere fun and cozy, promote books and their store, etc. Of course this makes sense and is how businesses operate.

Most books are produced or printed for well under that 50% wholesale price, so the authors and publishers still make a profit when they sell their books to bookstores at this discount. In this way, the system works.

I’m Lucy is different. #1. I’m Lucy includes high quality photography that is too expensive to publish through normal channels. #2. The goal of I’m Lucy is to donate profits to organizations working to save the bonobos and our world.

If the book were sold through Amazon, the retail price would have to be raised to $40 so that at the 50% wholesale price to Amazon there would be enough money left for a small profit for Bonobo Kids and the bonobos.  But at a $40 retail price, few people would buy such an expensive book.

In response, Bonobo Kids has ‘cut out the middle store’ in order to give the bonobos the maximum amount of help while still meeting our expenses. When you buy I’m Lucy from our site, we are able to donate a substantial profit to Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots and the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI) and keep our lovely, little organization alive!

Make sense? Feel free to contact us if you have more questions!

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When you go to www.bonobokids.com to play and learn and buy tons of I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo books, you are filled with a playful, joyful feeling. Of course, seeing Lucy makes you happy, but that music, that flowing melody…what is it? who created it? WE ALL LOVE IT!

The music was written and performed by a very cool guy named Alex Reiser. We interviewed him so that we could find out as much as we could about this musical genius. Here are our questions and his answers:

How long have you been playing music?

I started playing the cello when I was five thanks to my mom. After a
few years, I got frustrated with all the lessons and practicing though
and convinced her that I wanted to quit. Then in high school I had a
friend with an electric guitar which I thought that was pretty cool
and that inspired me to start playing music again. I’ve been playing
the guitar and bass for about 12 years now.

What is your favorite instrument?

I started out as a guitarist, but I have to say that bass is my
favorite instrument now. I like being part of the rhythmic and
harmonic foundation in a group, and I love the feeling of being locked
in a groove with a good drummer.

How many instruments do you play?

I consider myself a bass and guitar player, but I can play a little bit
of keyboard and drums too. In college I studied abroad in India where
I studied Hindustani classical music on the sitar and tabla. So, six instruments.

We heard you are part of a circus? Tell us all about that!

I was part of a bluegrass band in college and we toured for two
summers playing live accompaniment for Circus Smirkus. We traveled
and lived in a converted school bus named ‘Bessie’ that the circus
sold us for $1. She had a cow head mounted on the hood. We wrote the
soundtrack for the shows and sat ringside playing music synchronized
to the acts, and it was a lot of fun working with what became a very
close-knit crew. Circus Smirkus puts on traveling big top circus
shows with youth acrobats and performers from all over the world and
is based in northern Vermont.

What inspired you to create the music for bonobokids.org?

When I created the music for bonobokids.org I was on tour with Sierra
Leone’s Refugee All Stars as their production manager, and I wanted to
incorporate some of their upbeat and positive energy into what I was
writing for www.bonobokids.org. I wanted it to be something fun and
simple with a little bit of a groove, too.

Do you have any pets?

I don’t have any animals right now but I always had dogs growing up,
and I had a cockatiel named Sylvester.

What is your favorite animal?

My favorite pets are definitely dogs. I love watching Giraffes run.
And I can say that I admire Bonobos for their non-violent approach to
conflict resolution.

Do you do anything in your everyday life specifically to help the
environment?

I commute on my bike when I can avoid taking a car, and we try to keep
our energy use at home to a minimum.

Any other causes you are interested in?

I’m excited to be involved with a project called WeOwnTV.org with
Banker White that will be training teenagers, refugees, and
ex-combatants to produce their own video and media starting in
Freetown, Sierra Leone. Through the website and distribution efforts
WeOwnTV hopes to offer participants the means to share their ideas and
experiences with the world.

Do you have any photos you want to share?

Sure! This is me in my little home studio…

…and this is our circus band - The Route Seven Ramblers - along with our bus ‘Bessie’. (It kind of looks like Bessie burped up all of the stuff or something!!!)

Thanks, Alex - for this interview and for our finger snappin’, toe tappin’ Bonobo Kids jam!

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Did you know that a major part of the destruction of the bonobo’s rainforest in the DRC, their natural habitat, is because of cell phones? It’s all because of an essential cell phone ingredient called Coltan, short for Columbite-tantalite. Coltan is a mineral extracted from the deep forests of the Congo and throughout Central Africa. In Africa, the Coltan industry is not regulated and miners destroy these forests while mining for Coltan - they destroy the natural habitats of the bonobos, gorillas, elephants and other African species.

In addition to mining Coltan, the miners also hunt these animals for food – and the animals are now on the brink of extinction. Coltan is very valuable, meaning that whoever finds it can sell it for a lot of money. As a result, miners are fighting over mining grounds and Coltan – and this started and sustained a war in the Democratic Republic of Congo – hurting many animals and the people that live in the Congo in the process.

So, back to our question in the title of this post…It may seem really simple. Of course, you want to pick Bonobos and the environment over cell phones – but think about it. Haven’t we come to depend on our phones? Look at these three scenarios…

1. Your grandparents were expecting you home at 2:00, but you and your cousins are stuck in traffic. You don’t want your grandparents to worry - how nice that you can call them on your cell phone and let them know where you are!

2. Your dad is driving you to your new friend Eli’s house and he gets totally lost – how lucky that he can call Eli’s mom from the car for directions.

3. Your family is taking its annual road trip to Yellowstone National Park and your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere – how incredible that help is just a cell phone call away.

But, cell phones are relatively new! While you have probably never known life without a cell phone, some of us at bonobokids.org lived for many years without cell phones! Some of us for 25, 40, even 55 years!!!

Here is your challenge for today: look at the situations above (1,2,3). In each scenario, we solved the problem with a cell phone. Can you think of solutions without the cell phone??? We dare you! And we can’t wait to hear your answers – we’ll post some of the best solutions in over the next few weeks.

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Des Moines, Iowa is the home of the Iowa Great Ape Trust. This is an amazing place with a fantastic 4-part mission:

• Provide sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes
• Study the intelligence of great apes
• Advance the conservation of great apes
• Provide unique educational experiences about great apes

The Iowa Great Ape Trust is currently the home of many wonderful bonobos like Panbanisha and Kanzi. And, you’ll never guess what they’ve been up to…painting. Yes! Using paintbrushes, sponges, their hands and even their tongues (ewwww!), these bonobos and their cousins, the orangutans, have been painting and creating magnificent works of art. The Great Ape Trust is auctioning the apes’ artwork to raise money for great ape conservation efforts in the countries where these endangered species live in the wild. One of the orangutans is partially paralyzed, so she paints pictures by holding her brush in her mouth!

William Fields, Director of Bonobo Research shared a hilarious story about the painting bonobos – just one more reason why we love these animals and want to do everything we can to save them. Here is the story about two bonobos, their paintings and their future careers as art critics:

“One time, Fields said, Kanzi and Panbanisha separately completed paintings.

Afterward, Fields took Panbanisha’s painting to Kanzi. What did Panbanisha paint?

Kanzi studied it. Strawberries, he answered correctly, pointing to the corresponding symbols on his lexigram board.

Then Fields took Kanzi’s work to Panbanisha. What did Kanzi paint?

Fields said Panbanisha turned the painting this way, then that, looking it over closely. Finally she picked out her answer on her lexigram board.

Paint, she indicated dismissively.” (Mary Chandler, DesMoinesRegister.com, 10/22/07)

Hey! I guess Panbanisha calls ‘em like she sees ‘em! But, while she may not be particularly impressed by Kanzi’s work, a lot of people were. The Iowa Great Ape Trust raised $10,000 to help the conservation of great apes and learned a lot about art and creativity by watching the processes of these great ape artistes! We applaud their efforts – apes and fundraisers alike.

Go here to vote for your favorite painting.

What’s a ‘lexigram board’??? Scientists use lexigram boards to communicate with apes. The board is a keyboard with symbols for representing words and phrases. The apes point to the symbols to ‘say’ what they want to the scientist.

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