Dem Rep of Congo: Lola Ya Bonobo – Baby Bonobos
Bonobos come to the Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary as orphaned babies most often sold for pet trade or their parents killed for bush meat. The baby bonobos can not be put together with adult bonobos, since female bonobos do not accept babies that are not theirs. So all the babies spend several years in a “kindergarten” of sorts where they are assigned their own human mothers. Women employees of the sanctuary spend almost all their time with baby bonobos who get totally attached to them, as the apes mature and are ready to be incorporated into their own social groups with other adult bonobos. And one more thing about bonobos – these species use sex to resolve any possible confrontations and arguments, so even in subadults you could quite quickly observe sex scenes. Interestingly, bonobos are the only primates (besides humans) who often have sex facing each other. It is said that the bonobo slogan is “make love not war”.
