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Fourteen bonobos have been returned to the wild in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just the second time in history for the endangered great ape species. Friends of Bonobos\u00a0(www.Bonobos.org<\/a>) of the Congo, the conservation organization that operates the world\u2019s only bonobo sanctuary, released the bonobos in March into Ekolo ya Bonobo Community Reserve, a 120,000-acre protected area.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Bonobos share 98.7% of our DNA and are humans\u2019 closest living great ape relatives, along with chimpanzees. They are endangered because of the illegal bushmeat trade and habitat loss. Bonobo groups are led by a dominant female – the only ape species with this social structure.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The released bonobos, former victims of wildlife traffickers, were rehabilitated at Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary near Kinshasa, DRC. The matriarch, Maya, and her three children were among the rewilded bonobos. Maya was the second bonobo rescued by sanctuary founder Claudine Andr\u00e9 more than 25 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the bonobos I have known since I was a kid,\u201d said Fanny Minesi, Andr\u00e9\u2019s daughter and general director of Friends of Bonobos of the Congo\/Amis des Bonobos du Congo (ABC). Yet, \u201cMaya\u2019s place is in the forest,\u201d Minesi said. \u201cThis is the day we worked for – for decades – to put bonobos back in the wild where they are protected.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI hope our education programs will help people realize that bonobos are important for the forest, they are important for people, and we have to have safe places for them,\u201d Minesi said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The rewilding resulted from years of efforts to repeat ABC\u2019s first bonobo release in 2009. The bonobo group released last month had been living since 2018 on Totaka Island, a temporary quarantine site near the reserve. Their final move to the reserve was postponed multiple times due to an Ebola outbreak, technical challenges and the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The released bonobos are adjusting well so far, said Suzy Kwetuenda, coordinator of bonobo wellness. One male bonobo named Kubulu left the 2009 group to join the new group. A total of 30 bonobos now live in the reserve. Healthy babies have been born in both groups, an indication of conservation success.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that at some point, we no longer have to rewild bonobos because poaching of bonobos has stopped,\u201d said Cintia Garai, PhD, director of Ekolo ya Bonobo Community Reserve.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The release was supported by donors around the world.<\/p>\n Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Friends of Bonobos.<\/i><\/p>\n Download Photos:\u00a0https:\/\/bit.ly\/3r4TQSr<\/a><\/p>\n Contact: <\/strong>karen.kemp@bonobos.org<\/a><\/p>\n About Friends of Bonobos of the Congo:<\/strong> Source<\/a> Fourteen bonobos have been returned to the wild in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just the second time in history for the endangered great ape species. Friends of Bonobos\u00a0(www.Bonobos.org) of the Congo, the conservation organization that operates the world\u2019s only bonobo sanctuary, released the bonobos in March into Ekolo ya Bonobo Community Reserve, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":84477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/418.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[258,256,41965,4696,281,4691,450,279,280,20873,7099,257,9365,254,6599,11335],"class_list":["post-84476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dr-congo","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-bonobos","tag-central-africa","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-dr-congo","tag-dr-congo-news","tag-drc","tag-drc-news","tag-endangered","tag-history","tag-news","tag-returned","tag-south-africa-today","tag-time","tag-wild"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/418.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFriends of Bonobos saves and protects bonobos and their rainforest habitat through bonobo rescue, rehabilitation and reintroduction; partnerships with local communities to address the root causes of poaching and protect the rainforest; and educational programs in the DRC and around the world. For more information or to make a donation, please visit\u00a0www.Bonobos.org.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n
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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"