Micheline Nzonzi cradled a sleepy little bonobo, an orphan whose life she will try to save over the next three years or so.
The 1-year-old’s chances are good, with maternal affection, bottle milk, and frequent play with other babies.
“Without me, without us, these bonobos cannot survive,” says Nzonzi, a foster mother of bonobos for 24 years. “They survive thanks to human affection.”
This primate nursery on the forested outskirts of Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, is the world’s only sanctuary for orphaned bonobos, usually rescued from poachers or found trapped in the homes of locals who raise them for meat.
Although endangered great apes such as bonobos are legally protected from hunters, they continue to be hunted to meet demand for bushmeat in areas beyond the basin. Congoan extensive rainforest that is sometimes called the second lung of the Earth. The bushmeat trade ranges from rodents to antelopes, but a totemic ape like the bonobo can fetch a higher price.
“Bonobos are in danger. We are educating people not to kill bonobos”says Arsène Madimba, educator at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary. “We can’t kill them, we can’t keep them at home as pets, we can’t eat them. Because of poaching, we can find large exchanges of orphaned bonobos all over the country.”
Congo has proposed the issuance of “bonobo credits”
Bonobos raise their babies for four or five years. Their low reproductive cycle makes them vulnerable to environmental disturbances. To protect them and their habitat, Congolese authorities last year raised the idea of issuing “bonobonos”similar to carbon credits, to reward communities for preserving forests. The program has not yet taken off.
“There is a cultural difference” between the Congo and neighboring Uganda, where apes are not hunted for their meatsaid primatologist Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, founder of the Uganda-based group Conservation Through Public Health. “In the Congo, they believe you can become as strong as (the eaten primate).”
There are dozens of adult bonobos at Lola ya Bonobo. Some have lived there since 2002, when this sanctuary was inaugurated under the sponsorship of a non-profit conservation organization known by its French name Les Amis des Bonobos du Congo.
The nursery also has 11 young bonobos, the last of which arrived earlier this year. Each calf is paired with a foster mother who will care for it for years before it can be transferred to groups of bonobos open to visitors.
On rare occasions, a Lola ya Bonobo animal ends up returning to its natural habitat, which can take years of preparation.
There are about 20,000 bonobos left in the wild
Bonobos share almost 99% of their DNA with humans and, along with chimpanzees, are our closest living relatives.
In the 1980s, primatologists estimated there were about 100,000 bonobos left in the wild. Now there are an estimated 20,000 left, a staggering decline. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the bonobo is threatened primarily by the bushmeat trade.
The bonobo’s natural habitat is an area of dense equatorial forest south of the Congo River. Bonobos are rarely studied in the wild, and much of what is known about them comes from studies in foreign zoos and from foreign researchers drawn to a fascinating creature.
The bonobo was first identified as a possible separate species in 1929, when German anatomist Ernst Schwarz noted a difference in the skull of a specimen believed to be an adult chimpanzee with an unusually small head. Schwarz’s rival, an American zoologist named Harold Coolidge, later provided detailed descriptions that allowed the bonobo to be classified as a separate species in 1933.
The bonobo is relatively well-known among Americans, due in part to its reputation as one of the most intelligent, peaceful and empathetic animals. They may even have imagination, according to a study published in 2025 by Johns Hopkins University.
Bonobos are led by females and are distinguished by their apparent lack of sexual jealousy. When two groups meet, females can switch sides without causing a fight, unlike chimpanzees and gorillas. They can initiate casual mating, which occurs with such frequency, intensity, and variety of styles that bonobos are described as “hippie apes.”
Monkey meat market continues
In Kinshasa, the primate meat trade has gone underground. Traders need permits to hunt antelope and other species, but trade in “les macaques” is banned in part to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola.
“I used to sell monkeys, but now we can’t sell monkeys, any kind of monkeys.”said Charles Ntanga, a seller at Masina market.
Ntanga brandished a fly swatter to scare away the flies that settled on the rancid carcass of a giant rodent in front of him, whose kilo cost about 17 dollars. Guyva Mputu, the vendor next to me, was selling pythons, whose frozen flesh was beginning to smoke in the humid weather.
Baby bonobos captured by poachers are used to lure adult bonobos, which are shot when they come to investigate the noise, explains Madimba of Lola ya Bonobo.
Orphaned bonobos bond with their keepers, who can often identify them by name, explains Frank Lutete, a zookeeper whose job it is to feed the animals. He paddled across the water to distribute papaya while the bonobos made a racket coming down from the trees to collect their offerings.
Some bonobos thank him, he says, patting their chests in gratitude.