BONOBO

WITH no formal education in primatology or any other animal science, Belgium-born Claudine

André is an unexpected candidate to achieve landmark accomplishments for one of the great ape species but that is exactly what she has done. Along with her colleagues at the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary which means “Bonobo Paradise” in Lingala, the main language in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the sanctuary is located André successfully reintroduced the first-ever troop of rehabilitated bonobos into the wild in 2009. This tremendous feat is just one in a string of inspiring achievements in André’s compelling life story.

            When she was three years old, André moved to the DRC with her veterinarian father. She grew up surrounded by jungle and wildness, which made an indelible impression on her. “Nature became part of my everyday world, and it shaped my values and aspirations.”

            After completing her schooling back in Belgium, she returned to the DRC, raised five children near the shadow of the Virunga volcano, and finally moved to Kinshasa in 1978. However, in 1993 her life took a new turn when she was brought a sickly, orphaned bonobo while volunteering at the Kinshasa Zoo. Despite being told that all bonobos that came to the zoo from the wild invariably died, André committed herself to saving the infant, and

much to everyone’s surprise, it survived. Once word got out that there was a woman who could

save bonobos, local people began bringing injured and orphaned bonobos to Claudine. With a home for orphaned bonobos now available, officials from the DRC Ministry of the Environment began confiscating captive bonobos, whose capture and sale are illegal by Congolese law. To address the growing demand, André started the not-for-profit Les Amis des Bonobos du Congo (ABC) and opened a bonobo nursery affiliated with the American School of Kinshasa.

            In 2002 André took her efforts one step further and opened Lola ya Bonobo, the world’s first bonobo sanctuary. Located on a seventy-acre enclosed forest outside of Kinshasa, the refuge includes three separate enclosures and night buildings, as well as its own nursery. “Ever since I nursed that first baby bonobo back to health all those years ago,” says André, “I knew that these animals would be part of my life. I just keep looking for the next big thing I can do to help them, and there is always something. They are a species in need of assistance.”

            Sometimes called “the forgotten apes” or “pygmy chimpanzees,” bonobos are found exclusively in the DRC, and along with the chimpanzee are considered the closest living relative of humans. Bonobos are less studied and lesser known than the other great apes—orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees. And while bonobos and chimpanzees are very similar in appearance, they have a number of distinguishing differences. Bonobos tend to have longer limbs, a thinner build, dark faces, and pink lips. But the most important differences between bonobos and chimpanzees involve their psychology. Unlike chimpanzees, bonobos are a female-dominated

society. They engage in very little hunting and no war. Most important, no bonobo has ever been seen to kill another bonobo. Peace is maintained in the group through sexual contact and play.

            The Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary and ABC not only offer much-needed help to individual bonobos, but they also look to address the larger problem endangering the species. Only ten thousand to forty thousand bonobos are left in the wild, with less than a quarter of their natural habitat intact. They are typically brought to the sanctuary as collateral damage from the long, ongoing civil strife in the DRC. Decades of conflict have left locals lacking basic needs. As a

result, they frequently turn to the jungle for food and resources. When this happens, bonobos are often left orphans after their parents are killed illegally for bush meat, or infants are taken from the wild for the pet trade and later confiscated by officials who have no means to care for them.

            André and her colleagues work to educate Congolese youth, law enforcement officers, government officials, and local decision makers about bonobos and the need to protect them. These efforts focus on improving existing wildlife trade and enforcement laws and reducing demand for bush meat. The sanctuary’s education programs reach more than thirty thousand Congolese each year, most of them schoolchildren. André and her team have also started

reaching out directly to hunters and bush meat traders in local markets to try to stop the trade at its source. All this is done in addition to their ongoing efforts to provide a safe, comfortable environment for orphaned and injured bonobos brought to the sanctuary.

            Unfortunately, while the sanctuary has been able to take in these at-risk apes and provide safety and medical treatment for almost ten years, it has only finite resources and space. Working within these limitations, André strove for years to develop and implement a plan for reintroducing a troop of rescued bonobos into the wild. The reintroduction not only provided an opportunity for individual bonobos to live a more natural existence in the wild, it also offered the chance to increase genetic diversity in wild populations and reestablish bonobos in regions where they have been wiped out.

            To prepare for this reintroduction, André and her team had to identify a safe location suitable for bonobo habitat but devoid of a current population so as not to inadvertently spread disease or cause territorial conflict. After finding a site where bonobos once lived but had not been seen for decades, André began negotiating with stakeholders at both the release site and at the national level, to build support for the project on the ground, and to ensure that all required authorizations were obtained. All the released bonobos would be protected in the twenty-thousand-hectare forest (almost eighty square miles). Local residents, the Ilonga Pôo, agreed to become their guardians. In return, ABC supplied educational materials for five primary schools and two secondary schools, benefiting more than a thousand students. The schools had not had new material since the 1980s. ABC supplied blackboards, writing tablets, and updated textbooks for every classroom. The nonprofit also provided the community a startup stock of essential medicines that can be purchased at the village pharmacy, at cost.

            Finally, André had to ensure that the best suited bonobos were identified for the

reintroduction and that appropriate measures were in place to monitor the project’s success and

the health of the individual animals before, during, and after the release.

            “Reintroduction is complicated and can be a disaster for both the individual animals being brought back to the forest and for the wild populations if it is done wrong,” says André. “There is so much riding on doing it right the first time that we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.”

            While many of the bonobos at the sanctuary have been there too long or have injuries that would prevent them from successfully reentering the wild, some were viable candidates for reintroduction. After clearing health protocols, selection and translocation guidelines, and site requirements; monitoring behavior; searching for local bonobo populations; hiring vets and community outreach teams; and acquiring seemingly endless government permits, André released nine bonobos into the wild for the first time ever attempted. The troop included

two pregnant bonobos, who have since successfully given birth in the wild. This reintroduction will serve as a model for future introductions the next of which is already being planned and a source of hope that bonobos can still survive in the world.

            “Having done this shows the world that conservationists, the Congolese people, and

governments can all work together to make room for wild animals,” says André. “And I can’t think of a more incredible species to find a place for in the wild than bonobos. The truly remarkable forgotten ape which maybe with a little luck won’t end up being forgotten after all.”