Last quarter 2009
Fanny and I have just arrived in Basankusu. But talk about our bad luck: There
we are both with bad colds and our dreams of going with Suzy and the trackers
into the Ekolo forest have disappeared into thin air along with our sneezes! Thistime, we will have to be satisfied with watching the bonobos from the pirogue if
and when they came close to the river.
Suzy and the trackers don’t have it easy! The water level is almost at its yearlypeak. The team follows the bonobos through the forest, sometimes with water
up to their waists, while the bonobos move easily in the tree canopy, from one
patch of solid ground to the next. We often meet up with Suzy and thetrackers at the end of the day, when the bonobos have decided to nest, andthey are often soaked to their waists. It is almost a handicap to be walking withsuch high boots!
The Misadventures of Beni
Out of nowhere, on a Tuesday around 4.00 pm, we get a call from Suzy: “Beni hasa big gash in his forearm. It isn’t bleeding much, but the cut seems to be deep.
Beni has his right arm bent and the other bonobos are coming over to lick his
wound. They’re heading toward Mombengele beach.”
Fanny, Gladez, a few “eco-guards” just back from their anti-poaching patrol, andI go to meet them. Gladez is proudly
bearing her brand new camcorderthat her mother had sent her for
Christmas. The camera with its 60x
optical zoom allows Fanny todetermine how serious the wound is.
She decides it would be best to
stitch the wound to allow it to heal
faster, given that Beni is one ofthose who love walking through theswamps with water up to the armpits!

« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 1

A plan to isolate Beni is worked out. We need to get him alone someplace where
Fanny will be able to do the surgery.
The bonobo group is headed back to the isolation enclosure; everyone goes in,
except Beni who stays behind. That is it, our lucky chance! Quietly, we close thedoor behind the group, who couldn’t care less. (Suzy has kept on doing this as an
exercise every now and then.) But the water level is very high near theenclosure, and we want to do the surgery out of the bonobos’ sight. Fanny andSuzy head out in the pirogue to a small beach nicely tucked away in the forest
nearby. They walk back to join Beni, comfort him, groom him, and then Fannyrubs the dose of Domitor in his mouth. After a few minutes, he is ready toreceive the anaesthesia injection. All of this happens in total silence and withindifference of the others, who only get slightly upset when we move Beni in the
pirogue and out of their sight. But they don’t call out, they are trusting in us…
The pirogue brings Beni back into the tunnel leading to the isolation enclosure.
“I’ll operate on him in here!” declares Fanny.
I quickly improvise an operating table. Fanny’s knowhow is impressive! The various muscular planes are
sutured and she finishes with an invisible suture on
the surface, stitches worthy of a CHANEL
dressmaker. “That way, at least the others won’t be
tempted to pull out the stitches… At least I hope not!”she concludes. We take away the tarp that had kept
us hidden
from thecuriousbunch
and lead Beni back into the isolation
enclosure as he’s already coming
around from the anaesthesia. We
hope to be able to keep him
separated from the group for a few
days. Confident that their pal isokay, they are all already leaving us
to go and nest not far from the enclosure.
So Beni makes himself a nest in the enclosure and we head back to camp tocelebrate the happy ending of an episode that might have caused Suzy some real
trouble had Fanny not been there! With only one plane per week flying Kinshasa
to Basankusu, it might have been quite a while before anything could have been
« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 2

done! We decide that it is high time we sought out a vet willing to volunteer at“Ekolo ya bonobo” on a renewable six-month basis!
This gives me a chance to congratulate
our dream team (Suzy and Gladez), andto tell them how much I regret nothaving been able to be there with themwhen Fanny, along with the help of her
vet friend Carole, brilliantly organized
the return of the three trouble-makers
to Lola ya bonobo a few weeks back!
(See our blog posts on this adventure.)

The work at Ekolo
After Marielle Puit’s departure in
September, Suzy Kwetuenda wasnamed chief of the reintroduction
project.
From the very beginning, in Marielle’s
footsteps, we had seen the brilliant
student of Professor Brian Haredemonstrate her full capacities. Her
study of the bonobos has become areal passion! Having myself experienced that particular state of mind so well, I
think that Ekolo is the perfect place for her to be! With her main priorities
being to maintain the good health and well-being of the reintroduced bonobos
and ensuring their monitoring in theforest, she leads gently but firmly
some twenty field staff: thetrackers who follow the bonobos intheir roaming all day long; the ecoguides in their pirogues busy eachday educating the local people
about protecting the bonobos; andthe eco-guards who go on antipoaching patrols in the forest to
prevent hunters from setting their deadly traps.

« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 3

That is a big responsibility indeed! Without forgetting management of the campwhere military discipline reigns: store keeping under Thomas’ watchful eyes, thekitchen of “Mama Chief”, construction of the last remaining facilities. Of course,
Suzy is not alone to do all of this! Marielle had hired the “right hand men” foreach department and they have proved up to the task.
Aside for the bonobos, micro projects for the local population have become themain activity of ABC. In Basankusu, Alphonse, our sociologist, is in charge ofABC’s socio-economic activities as well as relations with the local administration.
Given his expertise, Marielle had asked him to take over the socio-economic
surveys that Pierrot had started in the early stages of the release preparations:
We had to better understand ourneighbors settled along the Lopori
River and learn about their problems
caused by a long period of isolation andthe suspension of all trading operations
with the capital city during the decadeof war. (In the last ten years, Equateur

Province has twice been occupied byvarious armed rebel factions, resulting
in the closing of businesses, lootings,
and the suspension of all river traffic.
This means no boat bringing goods from Kinshasa and no way to send their local
products, like corn, caterpillars, etc... to the capital. As a result, they returnedto their lives of yesteryear, living in isolation and having to rely even more on
the forest to survive with subsistence gathering, fishing, and hunting.)
We also had to determine the impact ofour reintroduction project on the daily
lives of the local population. Thusly,
thanks to partners such as France’s
Social Development Fund and theCanadian Embassy in the DRC, we havebeen able to promptly respond to someof their expectations. (We will soon

post on our website a list of the socioeconomic projects implemented by ABC
around Ekolo ya Bonobo.)

Distribution of essential meds

ABC and AWF (the African Wildlife Foundation) are regularly taken to task by
all kinds of religious institutions and “creationist” associations calling to their« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 4

minions to oppose people like us for “daring to confront God who created only
man in His own image, and lowering him to the level of some vulgar animals!”
Our work is to speak out, educating over
and over again, explaining the multiple
aspects of bio-diversity. The bonobo, anatural treasure in the Congo, a resourcethat we want to rescue from its predicteddisappearance, since its preservation alsomeans hope for human development within
this immense forested land. Provided weare granted peace, eco-tourism will soon
develop; in the meantime, we arediversifying our actions. If protection of bonobos is our goal, our objectives forthe implantation of our project go hand in hand with helping the local people.
I would say that today, the bonobos take up
30% of our activities, while 70% is devoted to
the villages along the river! A fact that one
discovers as soon one settles in here! But inreturn, the fiery Equateur temperament pays
you back your efforts in human warmth and insmiles… What a chemistry!
And so Mathieu continues the follow-up andthe creation of new Village Development Committees (VDCs), which during thesepast few years have become a source of hope for a population hardly anybody
has cared about for far too long.
Follow-up in the forest
Once back at Lola ya bonobo, our troublemakers (Max, Lisala and Lomani) quickly
found their old friends and their old habits.
Meanwhile at Ekolo ya bonobo, Suzy, withthe help of Zanna Clay of Saint Andrew’s
University, was able to resume working on
the trackers’ integration. Jerome, Véa andLouise are the first to go into forest. They
follow the group of bonobos (Etumbe, her children Mbano and Nsomi, Beni,
Kubulu, Lukaya and Lomela) all day long, until they settle in their nests for the« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 5night. But what a difficult period! The water level is rising and like every year, it
floods the whole forest in the central depression of the Congo Basin.
Since their release, the bonobos have turned into realtree-dwellers! That’s not the case for our trackers,
sometimes up to the waist in the black water! Nobody
can predict which direction the bonobos are going to
take. And even if they remain within a reasonabledistance of the isolation enclosure and enjoy settling
down for the night in the big trees at the beach northof Mombengele or at the beach to the south, during
the day they often wander along the transects formany kilometers! Suzy and her team follow them.
“They’re still at school”, she keeps saying, as if to
excuse them.
The goal is to reach the point where they will stop paying attention to ourpresence. Kubulu, nicknamed “GPS” by the trackers, is the one who brings themen to the group whenever the bonobos get too
far ahead. The group moves along, all the whileeating young plants or seeds from wild fruit.
These days, the forest is full of fresh tenderrosy leaves. The bonobos enjoy this tremendously
and stuff themselves for hours. Afterwards,
they take long lazy naps, allowing the trackers a
bit of relief on firm ground between two marshes.
During these times, everything is very quiet in
the undergrowth. Only the youngsters like Mbano
and his 4 month-old little sister, Nsomi, keepplaying around Etumbe. The others are asleep, either
in a hastily made nest or on the ground.
Heavy in her late pregnancy, Lukaya slows down thepace of this athletic group. How lucky we are to havethose two females – one of them pregnant and theother lactating - as the “generals” leading the groupNsomi
during the big flood! They do not feel like pushing
the group to discover new distant territories. Going 5 kilometers around therelease site is quite enough! (Japanese behavioral scientists and their trackers
say that the wild group they follow every day covers about the same distance. It
is unusual for the group to go very far from its “epicenter.”)« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 6

Now, Suzy declares, we should give those bonobos several months before
thinking about new developments. They have been through a lot in the past
twelve months! A six-month quarantine and training period, being transferred athousand kilometers from their home, adapting to a new environment, newfeeding habits (in terms of quantities and qualities) and also getting used todrinking the black water of the Lopori. Before Nsomi’s birth, Mbano had toexperience the separation from his mother, who no longer allowed him to sleep inher nest. Since some of them refused to share their space with humans, we had
to return three adult bonobos back to Lola, which created an important void in
their social structure! Then, they had to accept the trackers’ presence. And
soon, Lukaya will be giving birth… “That’s enough for a while!” says Suzy (andClaudine!), let’s keep them at this cruising speed for a while. Let’s wait for the
beginning of January and the end of the flood season before undertaking newadventures...
Meanwhile, back at Lola…
… we don’t stay idle! Enclosure 3 has been transformed into a reintroduction
training ground. It was decided that 12 young bonobos (between 7 and 8 years
old), led by the two adults Tembo and Salonga with her baby, will start learning
to share their space with trackers. Today a first group of six is being followed
all day long by Ibrahim (who came especially from Basankusu for this), JeanClaude, the keeper of enclosure 3, and Mama Yvonne, from the nursery.
At 8 am, food is left at various places in
the forest. At 9 am, the group starts a
three-hour stroll. Pause at noon for the
trackers, and a stroll again in the afternoon.
After two months, the results lookpromising: the bonobos are totallydisinterested in being followed! Every now
and then, our boarding visitors accompany
them; and the bonobos rarely “cozy up” tothem!
Even the nursery has entered a “pre-training” cycle, so that the older ones canalready get used to more freedom. The “back-up nursery” with its wooded area
is a new space for the elders to play in, with more distance from the Mamas.

« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 7

Only the babies (Sandoa, Lomako and Kodoro) stay close to their surrogate
mamas. Though ... Katako, as the eldest in thenursery group, often takes one of the babies with
her to join the group of explorers!
We also attempted to separate Sake from her
Mama Henriette (she has been in the nursery formore than three years and she is definitely not themost disciplined!!), but we had to cancel the plan. Avery brief stay in enclosure 3, and quick, back tonursery! “I told you so”, groaned Henriette, “She’sdifficult, but I knew she wasn’t ready!” Okay! Andso the “chief’s daughter” took back the first rank inthenursery.
You can still hear Mama Henriettemumbling every now and then thatsince then, Sake has regressed... But
everyone else agrees this may be a
bit overstated... especially when you
see the turbulent little creaturetrying to sneak out through theenclosure door where a padlock has
carelessly been left open!
Kinsuka’s confiscation
In November, in cooperation with the inspectors fromthe Environment Ministry, we organized theconfiscation of a small female, Kinsuka. Alas, in spite of
all our efforts, we were unable to restore her tohealth: she was just too weak. Earlier in the year, we
had almost succeeded in rescuing her from the grip ofa trafficker, but in anger he stole away with her! The
man hid her away, then eventually he handed over the
little creature to his family, where we found her
thanks to a neighbor’s alert. The Environment
inspectors did a good job at officially confiscating thistiny bonobo, but by that time, she was nothing more than skin and bones!

« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 8

The man's wife said that he had gone back to Equateur Province to find more
bushmeat and other animals, without leaving her any money to feed this bonobo!
She didn’t even have enough to feed her own children!

When they handed us the baby, arope was eating into the flesh on
her hips. Fanny gently cut it away,
but Kinsuka didn’t want to let go ofit. She held it tightly in her small
emaciated hands, as if it were herlast treasure, her last suffering,too! She died the next day.

The death of Vanga
It is true that with their “4 hands”, bonobos are real acrobats in trees. But
accidents can happen too!
So in November, the “little crazy guys” of Enclosure 3(those in training for release), were jumping from tree
to tree, from branch to branch, when all of a sudden,
Vanga fell! He fell on his head. A broken branch had
stabbed through his thigh, most probably severing his
femoral artery. Unconscious, he was brought back to us
by Tembo, but then Tembo refused to let go of theinert body of his young friend whose blood was gushingout. When he finally let go of him, Clémence and AnneMarie tried to stitch him back up. (Fanny was awaywith me at Ekolo.) But it was too late: Our little friend
had already fallen into eternal sleep!
Vanga was a bonobo we all loved very much; he looked so much like my beautiful
Boende (lost in 2003 during the epidemic of EMCV) that I had a special feelingfor him. I had gone to fetch him on the campus of TASOK (the American Schoolin Kinshasa), where he had been brought by plane from Vanga by a family of
American missionaries. The father, a doctor, handed the bonobo to me, while hisdaughter begged me to take very good care of him. “I did!” I will tell her. But
this time, good fortune was not with me.
« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 9

Nioki is a mom!
And here is some good news to end
this last newsletter of the year: Our“little” Nioki is now the mother of asmall baby male! We have named him“Bomengo ya Lola”, which means“wealth of paradise”. In spite ofinitial difficulties with nursing, theyoung 11 year-old mother and her son
have now joined the nursery where
Mama Henriette will watch over the
young mother’s progress.
“Can you imagine how fast time has flown by?!” Valérie exclaims. “My sweet little
Nioki has a baby!” (Nioki was so fragile when she arrived at the Sanctuary that
Valérie personally took care of her, before handing her over to Mama Henriette.
And a very delicate enterprise it was - “Italian style” we used to say, since theonly food she would accept was spaghetti!!! See our Newsletter #3 from 2000.)

N
Niiookkii «« pprreesseennttss »» BBoom
meennggoo
ttoo VVaalleerriiee

N
Niiookkii iinn 22000000“Yes Grandma!” I reply, laughing. “Why don’t you offer the staff a drink tocelebrate?” No sooner said than done! A welcome drink for this new baby andplenty of laughs and toasts to his health!

« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 10Christmas at LOLAAt Lola ya bonobo, Santa Claus’ bells are
already ringing. A nice lunch, new games,
Christmas songs for all our children, andthe usual food package for a fine Christmas
family dinner for every employee and othercollaborators of ours. Suzy and Gladez
return to Kinshasa for the holidays, Fanny
leave for France to join her family... Valerie
and Claudine will celebrate too! Let’s all bemerry!

A busy year is now behind us! You have shared, through the blog posts and thenewsletter, all our joys, our happiness, but also all our sorrows. What a year fullof emotions!
But let’s look to the future. As
Mama Henriette likes to say: “At
Lola we always move forward!”
Yes, you’re right, Henriette! But
now, we can also say: at Ekolo, wemove forward too!

Bonana to everyone!
Happy New Year!

« Planete bonobo » : Claudine’s Newsletter #47 (October - December 2009 )Page 11