This magnificent ape is only known to be found in the DRC, also known as Congo. The Bonobo likes to live near rivers and they are capable of surviving relatively close to where humans live.
The Bonobo ape is a very friendly ape that doesn’t hurt anybody. Sadly this has made them quite easy targets for hunters so the Bonobo is about to be extinct in not very long. During the last decade it’s population has decreased a lot due to hunters. Today there’s less than 100’000 Bonobo apes left alive.
The main reason that hunters are going after the Bonobo ape is that in some tribes in Congo it’s believed that some specific body parts of the Bonobo Ape is supposed to grant the owner increase sexual drive and strength
The ones that hunt the Bonobo Apes for their meat is illegal hunters and they are the ones who tend to destroy the habitats that some of the Bonobo Apes live in.
When you’re at home or somewhere else and reading this you might feel like you can’t contribute, you might feel like it’s impossible to do anything about the hunters in Congo.
But the African Wildlife Foundation have set some solutions to this problem.
- AWF have build the Lomako Conservation Science Center in the center of Congo. They build this in order to let explorers, scientist and the ones who want to try to save the hurting animals in the area. In this center they also educate those who are interested.
- The AWF have located some of the villages and communities who lives quite close to the Bonobo apes. They keep on educating the people about the ape and that they are not in danger if they would ever encounter any of these friendly apes. Other than that AWF also educates them in how the people of the communities can help them achieve their conservation goals.
- As you have to do with every goal you set, you need to develop strategies on how you could achieve those goals. When plan A falls to pieces you always need to have backup plans in case of things going wrong. AWF never keep there eye off the price, to stop the hunt and killing of the innocent Bonobo ape.
We’re so happy that there’s plenty of organisations who’s working hard to save the wildlife of Africa. It’s quite hard to explain in words and pictures of how wonderful it is to see it. All we can say is that you have to experience it at least once in your lifetime. If you’re ever interested about travelling to somewhere in Africa you can always rely on avionero.com to assist you in finding the best and cheapest flights to your location.