Bonobo Paradise

Lola Ya Bonobo, or "Bonobo Paradise" in the Lingala language, is an 86-acre sanctuary set in verdant hills 20 miles south of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  • By Paul Raffaele
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Claudine Andre Claudine Andre, founder of Lola Ya Bonobo (Bonobo Paradise) sanctuary, rescues about ten of the endangered animals per year.

Claudine Andre

 

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    Lola Ya Bonobo, or "Bonobo Paradise" in the Lingala language, is an 86-acre sanctuary set in verdant hills 20 miles south of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Founded by Claudine André, a Belgian woman raised in the Congo, it's home to 52 bonobos, from infants to adults, most of them orphaned when their mothers were slaughtered for bushmeat.

    One of André's favorites is a five-year-old once kept in a basket by a medicine man. He chopped off one of the bonobo's finger joints every so often, and it is missing much of one hand. "Congolese believe that if you put a bonobo bone into a child's first bath, the child will grow up strong," André tells me. "He even chopped off the tip of the bonobo's penis to use in rituals."

    The sanctuary allowed me to observe bonobo behavior up close, although I recognize that these are traumatized animals living in an artificial environment.

    At one of the enclosures, eight bonobos grip their night-cage bars and stare greedily as attendants pile their breakfast outside—papaya, lettuce, sugar cane, pineapple and other fruits. Let loose from the shelters they stay in overnight, they immediately launch into frenzied sex, with even youngsters joining in, the air shaken by their excited screams. Then they settle in a circle around the food and eat. "Bonobos use sex to deflate tension. Competition for the best food could cause a fight, so they defuse it by having sex first," André says.

    I saw another side of bonobo sexuality that sets them apart from the other great apes (gorillas, orangutans and chimps). Tshilomba, a 22-year-old female, had been rescued two years earlier after spending 18 years confined in a cage in a Kinshasa biological laboratory. She allows her favorite, Api, a juvenile male, to mount her and simulate sex. She looks the other way when the alpha male, Makali, clearly indicates that he too wants to mate with her. She lies on her side, swollen bottom pointed provocatively at him, and stares with seemingly studied indifference into space. Makali sits by her side waiting for an invitation and, when it doesn't come, wanders away. "With chimps and gorillas, an alpha male would have had sex with the female whether she wanted to or not," says André.

    But at Lola Ya Bonobo I also got my best glimpse of bonobo male aggressiveness. At the open-air nursery, a pair of three-year-old males launched repeated attacks on me through the enclosure fence. I stood close enough that they were able to punch me in the stomach, back and face. When I approached an enclosure holding a burly adult male, he dragged a tree bough noisily along the ground at high speed and slammed it into the fence in front of me in a power display. A Congolese researcher named Mola Ihomi had told me that male bonobos in the wild do the same thing when flaunting their power at males from another troop. "I never let male attendants into the enclosures because the male bonobos would attack them," André says.

    André and Dominique Morel, who is in charge of fundraising for the sanctuary, are working with the Ministry of the Environment to reintroduce some bonobos into the Lomako forest, but many of the animals have been living in captivity for so long that they might not survive in the wild. André and Morel hope that the bonobos that remain in the sanctuary will serve an important educational function. "By getting people, especially children, to observe bonobos play, they get to love and respect them," says Morel. "We know these visitors will never again eat ape meat."


    Lola Ya Bonobo, or "Bonobo Paradise" in the Lingala language, is an 86-acre sanctuary set in verdant hills 20 miles south of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Founded by Claudine André, a Belgian woman raised in the Congo, it's home to 52 bonobos, from infants to adults, most of them orphaned when their mothers were slaughtered for bushmeat.

    One of André's favorites is a five-year-old once kept in a basket by a medicine man. He chopped off one of the bonobo's finger joints every so often, and it is missing much of one hand. "Congolese believe that if you put a bonobo bone into a child's first bath, the child will grow up strong," André tells me. "He even chopped off the tip of the bonobo's penis to use in rituals."

    The sanctuary allowed me to observe bonobo behavior up close, although I recognize that these are traumatized animals living in an artificial environment.

    At one of the enclosures, eight bonobos grip their night-cage bars and stare greedily as attendants pile their breakfast outside—papaya, lettuce, sugar cane, pineapple and other fruits. Let loose from the shelters they stay in overnight, they immediately launch into frenzied sex, with even youngsters joining in, the air shaken by their excited screams. Then they settle in a circle around the food and eat. "Bonobos use sex to deflate tension. Competition for the best food could cause a fight, so they defuse it by having sex first," André says.

    I saw another side of bonobo sexuality that sets them apart from the other great apes (gorillas, orangutans and chimps). Tshilomba, a 22-year-old female, had been rescued two years earlier after spending 18 years confined in a cage in a Kinshasa biological laboratory. She allows her favorite, Api, a juvenile male, to mount her and simulate sex. She looks the other way when the alpha male, Makali, clearly indicates that he too wants to mate with her. She lies on her side, swollen bottom pointed provocatively at him, and stares with seemingly studied indifference into space. Makali sits by her side waiting for an invitation and, when it doesn't come, wanders away. "With chimps and gorillas, an alpha male would have had sex with the female whether she wanted to or not," says André.

    But at Lola Ya Bonobo I also got my best glimpse of bonobo male aggressiveness. At the open-air nursery, a pair of three-year-old males launched repeated attacks on me through the enclosure fence. I stood close enough that they were able to punch me in the stomach, back and face. When I approached an enclosure holding a burly adult male, he dragged a tree bough noisily along the ground at high speed and slammed it into the fence in front of me in a power display. A Congolese researcher named Mola Ihomi had told me that male bonobos in the wild do the same thing when flaunting their power at males from another troop. "I never let male attendants into the enclosures because the male bonobos would attack them," André says.

    André and Dominique Morel, who is in charge of fundraising for the sanctuary, are working with the Ministry of the Environment to reintroduce some bonobos into the Lomako forest, but many of the animals have been living in captivity for so long that they might not survive in the wild. André and Morel hope that the bonobos that remain in the sanctuary will serve an important educational function. "By getting people, especially children, to observe bonobos play, they get to love and respect them," says Morel. "We know these visitors will never again eat ape meat."

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    Comments (3)

    I am no scientist. But what I do know of evolution and adaptation, if we don't stop being so rigid in our approach to animals in the wild, we may lose them too extinction. The wild out there some where has become less and less viable. We may all have to learn to learn to co-exist in ways that are new and different than the past.

    Posted by sandra Cruze on July 6,2011 | 05:45 PM

    These infants through constant human contact are definately altered animals. They are constantly coddled and held by human women they are given medication at the first sniffle, they are fed human infant formula and they are given names. in other words they are totally dependant on humans having no natural ape skills of thier own they can never be released back into the wild. Their immune systems were not allowed to develop via the human medications they are given. All the center has done is turn them into PETS that will be killed or die in the wild because of human interference. The best thing that could happen is that these infants are donated to accredited zoos the center shut down to prevent the further destruction of these animals. As they are "rescued" they are berefit of any skills that they could learn in a established family group in zoos world wide rather than be turned into pets by these so called rescue centers. I have noticed that the majority of these rescue centers are staffed by childless women. I believe the maternal instinct in these women has become the most destructive force these poor animals face. These infants would be better off dead rather than being totally altered by these women.

    Posted by franek astinek on June 28,2011 | 04:32 AM

    I do wonder at the statement that" they are traumatized animals living in an artificial enviorment". I must admit that is the most honest statement I have ever heard from an ape rescue center. Now that these unfortunate infant bonobos are constantly exposed to humans, being fed held hugged,medicated when needed, has thier true nature as apes been altered in any way by this human influence? I do understand that you are left with an agonizing choice here; save these (THEY ARE SO BEAUTIFUL!) infants from death in the jungle or let them die. I have also read that some groups of bonobos have adopted motherless infants in the wild. Now; granted the methods you use have kept these animals alive, but what is the end result? Can these animals function in the wild? Or are they going live supervised lives in protected area? I watch Orangutan Island and I am shocked to see these extremely solitary animals put into groups and kept together. These animals cannot be released into the wild they have been altered to the point of dependancy on humans. This brings me to my final query, do any of you think these bonobo babies ae altered by your work? If I was in Africa and I saw a baby bonobo alone and in distress my first instinct would be to pick it up and comfort the crying infant animal, but I would have to ask myself am I altering this animals nature by cross species fostering? I know that no rescue center has ever commented on this, and I am not calling anyone down all I am asking is it ethical to alter a species in order to save them. Please I am not dispariging your work I only question wether the apes are altered by this work.

    Posted by ken on September 12,2010 | 03:00 PM

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