Searching for Bonobo in Congo

Kim Gjerstad, a great friend, puts together our “links-posts” for us.  He just sent this:

We are sharing links now for the third consecutive month. These are the few pages on the Internet that grasped our attention. If you see anything online regarding okapis, bonobos or bushmeat, let us know !

First off, the New York Times’s blog DOT EARTH published an article entitled An Accidental Beneficiary of Warfare: Wildlife.

Terese left a comment on this article which I include here:

War is no better for bonobos than it is for the people living within the bonobos’ range. There are very few jobs and there are many guns. Bushmeat is often less expensive than domestic meat and there are many unemployed men to seek it and sell it. Bonobo ARE bushmeat throughout much of their range.
Reserves are not necessarily a protection, particularly large Reserves like Sankuru. Bonobos are killed there as well. And unfortunately being a Reserve has not in any way slowed deforestation within Sankuru. True, no commercial logging has occurred there — but it would not have occurred there even if it was not a Reserve. In the meantime the forest is being lost under slash and burn agriculture. I do agree that Revkin should have done a bit more homework before publishing this…there is no silver lining.

Elsewhere, bonobo paintings are being auctioned to raise funds. The fun idea comes from the Great Ape Trust. Video included.

On the BBC, an article on Claudine André who was given an award for primate conservation by the Twycross Zoo. A video can be seen too. She runs a bonobo orphanage in Kinshasa.