EKOLO YA BONOBO:
Bonobo Reintroduction in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Congolese association Les Amis des Bonobos du Congo (ABC) has been working for bonobo
conservation for the past fifteen years. The Association’s goal is to contribute to theprotection of bonobos in their natural environment. To achieve this long-term goal, ABC
has set itself the following inter-related objectives:
1. Ensure the successful rehabilitation of bonobos confiscated by the DRC Ministry ofEnvironment and entrusted to the ABC for their rehabilitation and long-term care,by providing them with an environment appropriate for physical exercise and socialinteraction, and with all necessary nutritional, medical and psychological care;
2. Contribute to bonobo protection in situ through educational programs organized forschool groups, law enforcement officials and other visitors at Lola ya bonobo
Sanctuary and through advocacy work in the DRC;
3. Release socially stable groups of rehabilitated bonobos into the bonobos’ natural
habitat.
The reintroduction of socially stable and selfprovisioning groups of bonobos represents an
exceptional opportunity for the preservation of thegenetic diversity and possibly the repopulation of areasfrom where bonobos might have disappeared.

In line with IUCN philosophy,
the ultimate aim of therelease program is that thereleased individuals
successfully re-adapt to lifein the wild and reproduce in asustainable manner.

Over the past couple of years, ABC has worked
concurrently on three fronts: (1) final selection of asite that is appropriate for the release of the bonobos; (2) identification and preparationof the bonobos that are candidate for release; and (3) negotiations with all stakeholders
both at the release site and at national level to secure all required authorizations andsupport for the project.
In June 2009, a first group of bonobos rehabilitated at LOLA YA BONBO was released atEKOLO YA BONOBO, a 20,000 hectare area of swampy forest in Equateur Province, DRC.

June 14th : The reintroduction
Nine bonobos (4 females and 5 males, including Mbano
the 4 year old son of Etumbe) were selected to be partof the first reintroduction group:Femalesmales

Etumbe + Mbano
LukayaLisalaLomelaMax
Beni
LomamiKubuluOn June 14, a Sunday, the bonobos were transported from LOLA to EKOLO YA BONOBO,
as planned. The bonobos traveled in specially made crates, under close veterinary
supervision. The crates were transported by cargo plane between Kinshasa and Basankusu,
by truck to ABC’s Basankusu office, then on a specially-made raft for the 55 minute river
travel between Basankusu and the Mombengele reintroduction site.
Although we had planned for a discreet
arrival, in practice a joyful crowd and thehighest authorities of Basankusu were
there to welcome and accompany thebonobos. The crates were kept covered toprotect the bonobos from the sun as well
as noise and crowds.
In practice, thebonobos did not seem overly stressed by their pre-release anesthesia or by the transport.
The crates were placed in the small electric isolation
enclosure built at EKOLO YA BONOBO. The bonobos
were given water and food and allowed to calm down
before the crates were opened, one by one, in the lateafternoon. Etumbe and Mbano were the first to bereleased, Max the last one.
Plans were for the bonobos to be kept in the isolation enclosure under observation for 72
hours, before opening the gates onto the forest. In practice, Lisala (an 8 year old female)jumped the fence on the very first day, followed by Lukaya. While Lukaya subsequently
returned into the enclosure, Lisala spent the night outside, making a nest for herself rightnext to the enclosure.

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On June 17th, all the bonobos were allowed to leave the enclosure and explore the forest,
accompanied by ABC President Claudine André and Suzy Kwetuenda, a Congolese graduate
student who has been observing the bonobos at LOLA for several years and was hired tolead the bonobo post-release monitoring.
The bonobos rapidly adapted to their new environment:☼The group remained cohesive, under the leadership of alpha female Etumbe (age 23);
it did not seem unsettled by their new environment, as if they were in a 4th enclosure
at LOLA. More than 6-month pregnant, Etumbe seemed a little stressed and tired,even though she still led the team in active provisioning. In this context, Lisala - anaturally curious female who had her first menstruations shortly after the release –affirmed herself as a dominant female.
☼The bonobos rapidly discovered (apparently with great pleasure) numerous local fruit,leaves and stems, including fruit from Uapaca tree and aframomums.
☼Staff continued offering the bonobos water solution at the enclosure, but thebonobos were frequently observed drinking from the river as well as licking dew fromleaves and stems.
☼All the bonobos but Max immediately started making nests to sleep in high in thetrees, including 4-year old Mbano (whose mother, Etumbe, rejected from her nest).
Their nests appeared to be far moresophisticated than those they had been observedbuilding at LOLA. By the end of the second week
after the release, Max also started building nests
for himself (he had never been observed doing sopreviously).
☼Over the period, the bonobos showed increasing
tendency to move about in the trees, rather thancovering significant distance on foot as at LOLA.
☼From the start, alpha male Max started displays towards both bonobo females andstaff. He also responded strongly to the presence of male staff. By mid-August,Max – who had never been sexually active - was observed soliciting sex from selected
females, though always from the discreet cover of a tree. By September, Max
started to patrol further away from thegroup, a behavior usual in wild male bonobos.
☼In line with behavior to be expected fromthe son of an alpha female, little Mbano
adapted well, behaving like a little prince (i.e.
bully) towards the other bonobos.
☼On July 18th, Etumbe gave birth to a healthy
female bonobo. Etumbe immediately
rejoined the group and resumed herdominant position, as well as sexual contacts
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☼with other females.
Little Lomela (a 5 ½ year old female) and Kubulu (a 7 year old male) had the hardest
time adjusting, due to their low position in the group; they were frequently bullied byLomami (a 10 year old male) and other older bonobos.

Possibly due to continued supplementary feeding during the period, the bonobos regularly
returned to nest at or near the isolation enclosure, but they frequently spent the full day
in the forest and sometimes failed to come to the isolation enclosure or one of the feeding
beaches at provisioning time, indicating increasing capacity to self-provision.
Post-release monitoring
Recruitment of the proposed team of 12 eco-guards started in May. As per our initialagreement with the Ilonga-Pôo community, the eco-guards were to be in their majority
from their community. To accommodate increasing demands from the Kodoro – anotherlocal community on whose land our base camp is located - it was eventually decided torecruit 8 eco-guards from the Ilonga-Pôo and 4 from the Kodoro.
Four villagers who had participated in the initialsite survey and two staff who had worked on theconstruction of the enclosure and had been
trained in its maintenance were pre-selected. The
remaining trackers were selected from among 25
candidates nominated by their communities. The
trackers initially included only one woman, in partdue to low female literacy rates; a second female
tracker was hired in August.
The team is lead by Suzy Kwetuenda and also includes one experienced eco-guide, Ibrahim
Walelo, a Congolese national who used to work at HELP Congo in neighboring CongoBrazzaville. All other team members are new to their job.
The team’s roles include a mix of eco-guard duties – verifying that there are nosettlements, hunting, snares and other proscribed activities in the forest – and tracking of
the bonobos. The staff was trained on how to use a compass and a GPS as well as thebasics of anti-poaching monitoring.
Two post-doctoral students (ethologist Amandine Chapelain of Loughborough University inEngland and ecologist Catherine Workman from Duke University) spent 6 weeks at EKOLO
from early July. They trained staff on the basics of data collection for behavioral
observations, as well as common bonobo behaviors, facial expressions and vocalizations

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that may be interesting to monitor. The researchers also drew a list of behaviors to bemonitored post-release, focusing on feeding, movement and inter-group dynamics.
We had assumed that the bonobos would be afraid of the forest, so that human presence
for post-release monitoring would prove reassuring. In practice, the released bonobos
adapted surprisingly easily to their new environment, showing no sign of fear. In
particular, Max immediately started displaying towards intruders in “his” territory, before
calming down and coming for a contact with known staff. Max similarly displays towards
bonobos, but they seem to largely ignore his shows and simply get out of his way. The newtrackers were notably more impressed and this delayed initial post-release monitoring
efforts.

The planned release of a second group of bonobos was postponed until effective monitoring
could be implemented. Several “break contact” training sessions were conducted by Suzy,
accompanied by Claudine André, veterinarian Fanny Mehl and/or EKOLO CoordinatorMarielle Puit (all female staff) in June and July, based on the bonobos’ presence at one ofthe provisioning beach (which is most appropriate for integration). However, the newtrackers remained hesitant to risk an encounter
When an intruding villager was bitten in August
while fishing for eel right next to the isolation
enclosure, it was decided to remove the threebonobos who were showing more potentialaggressiveness and return them to LOLA, so thatthe trackers could start effectively monitoring thegroup before the seasonal rise in river water risked
dispersing the bonobos further away into theforest. On October 19-20, Max, Lisala and Lomami
were transported back to LOLA YA BONOBO andreintegrated their former groups without any
trouble – like they just went on a short holidays. (It is worth mentioning that Max has
remained sexually active…)
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Post-release monitoring immediately resumed at EKOLO YA BONOBO, led by Suzy withsupport from Zanna Clay, a bonobo behavioral scientist from St Andrews University (UK)with prior experience tracking chimps at Gombe. (Zanna went to EKOLO as a short breakfrom her observations at LOLA YA BONOBO, where she spent the Fall.) By the end ofOctober, the bonobos had gotten used to the presence of the trackers and started tomove of their own accord into the forest, with five local trackers following them, two
women and three men.
The temporary disruption in the social organization of the group, who initially proved lessactive in exploring their environment, did not last a week. Beni soon took over thedominant male position, conducting patrols away from the group as Max had started doing.
(Beni even got lost in early November, moving further and further away from the group for
two full days, until he abruptly turned back and rejoined the group on day 3. Two trackers
were able to follow him on foot during this period while Suzy was tracking him from a
pirogue from nest to nest, trying to attract him back with recordings of her own and theother bonobos’ voices.)

The isolation enclosure still remains the basis of the group’s daily routine, and the bonobos
routinely return to the enclosure for nesting and feeding. Food supplementation (currentlyat 4 kg per bonobo per day, as against 7kg at LOLA) will be progressively reduced now thatthe group can be effectively tracked and foraging practices documented. The bonobos’
supplementary food includes bananas, sugar cane, tondolos, beyas (marantacea stems thatare rich in proteins), peanuts, pineapple, papaya and wild mangos, based on availability. Inaddition to reducing the overall quantity of food provided, we are also progressively
reducing sugar intake from fruit in favour of leaves and stems, which better reflects thenaturally occurring range of bonobo food in the forest. The diets of Etumbe (nursing) andLukaya (pregnant) are closely monitored.

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The team also started anti-poaching patrols in the forest inmid-July. Patrol findings are recorded with full GPS
information, for systematic mapping of animal and human useof the forest. While the team continues to report signs ofhuman use of the forest, this is mostly for local eel fishing
and wood collection. No snare or other evidence of hunting
has been reported. The teams have also seen evidence ofantelopes, porcupine, caimans and monkeys.
Both patrols and bonobo tracking are becoming increasingly
difficult with the seasonal rise in the Lopori River, withwater up to waist level in many parts of the forest. Swampy
forests are the bonobos’ natural habitat and the released
group simply moves along on the forest canopy….
Educational impact of released bonobos
Because the released bonobos still regularly return tothe isolation enclosure, they are providing an ideal
opportunity for education of a variety of river users
through direct observation. The trackers’ team hastaken on a complementary role as educators forvillagers and passers by, who usually come to observe
the bonobos whenever they settle at one of thebeaches to feed or play, especially in the evening.
After Etumbe gave birth in July, a special focus was given to her maternity, with strong
impact on the population.
In September and October alone, 386
pirogues with over 2,000 people stoppedby EKOLO YA BONOBO to observe thebonobos and listen to the team’sexplanations. A large number of the peoplecame from neighboring communities, butmany also came from villages far upstream
the Lopori River, deep in the bonobo
habitat; pirogues were recorded from far
away Kinshasa and Kisangani. None of thevillagers had ever seen a bonobo before and many willingly admitted that if they had evereaten bonobo meat before, they would never do so anymore. The educational impact of thereintroduced bonobos was therefore far greater than had initially been anticipated andconstitutes an important initial success of the project.
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Preparation of new release group
Based on lessons learned from post-release monitoring of the first release group, it was
decided that tolerance of trackers (i.e. accepting human presence at a distance, without
showing aggression or trying to come for a hug) would be added as a criterion in theselection of the next group of bonobos to be released. As such, release candidates arelikely to be younger than initially planned, at least during this initial phase, although older
juveniles and adults of easier disposition may also be included based on training results.
In October, the enclosures at LOLA YA BONOBO were reorganized and a new group ofjuveniles was identified for post-release monitoring training. The group includes 3females, Sankuru, Sake and Tshilenge, and 3 males, Maniema, Bili and Kikongo.
Tracker Ibrahim Walelo (formerly of HELP Congo) has been temporarily re-assigned toLOLA YA BONOBO to train other staff in post-release monitoring. From October, hestarted training the new bonobo group together with Yvonne Vela, one of the Sanctuary’ssubstitute mothers, and Jean-Claude Nzumbi, one of the keepers (i.e. one female and onemale staff). Other staff will be rotated in and out of the team to get bonobos used toignoring human presence, not only specific individuals. Every morning, they go for a walk in
the enclosure’s forest with the group.

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