Bonobo

Bonobos live in just one country in Africa.

It is called the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They live in warm, wet forests near a huge river.

Bonobos live in only one country: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the middle of Africa. They are found south of the great Congo River, in low, hilly land between about 300 and 700 meters above sea level.

Their home is damp rainforest, swampy forest and patches of forest mixed with grassland. Bonobos often wade into small streams and ponds to find food, but they do not swim. Wide rivers act like walls that keep bonobo groups apart.

The range is discontinuous, in the low-lying central basin south of the Congo River: east to the Lualaba River, south to the Kasai and Sankuru rivers, and west to the Congo River about 300 kilometers north of Kinshasa and around Lake Tumba and Lake Mai-Ndombe. Of a potential range of about 563,330 square kilometers, only 28 percent is suitable.

Bonobos use moist mature and secondary forest, swamp forest and forest-savanna mosaics at 300 to 700 meters, preferring primary forest where it exists. They enter water but do not swim, so large rivers limit gene flow between populations. The IUCN identifies four strongholds; the 36,000-square-kilometer Salonga National Park was the first protected area created that harbors bonobos.

Bonobos love fruit.

They also eat leaves, stems and flowers. They dig for earthworms too. Bonobos often share their food with each other.

More than half of a bonobo's food is fruit and seeds. Bonobos also eat leaves, stems, shoots, bark, flowers, mushrooms and honey, plus plants that grow in water. They spend hours hunting for earthworms, and they have even been seen catching shrimp with their hands.

Bonobos usually get most of the water they need from fruit. Working in small groups, they often share the food they find. Bonobos are important seed spreaders, which helps the forest grow back.

Bonobos are omnivorous: over 50 percent of the diet is fruit and seeds, supplemented by leaves, stems, shoots, pith, bark, flowers, truffles and other fungi, and honey. The IUCN notes that they depend more than chimpanzees on terrestrial herbaceous vegetation, including aquatic plants, foraging in small streams and breast-deep ponds; invertebrates such as termites and caterpillars, and occasionally vertebrates such as duikers, are also eaten.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance describes long searches for earthworms, fishing for shrimp by hand and food-sharing within foraging groups, and notes that fruit supplies most of their water. Their seed dispersal is considered critical for forest regeneration.

In a bonobo group, the moms are in charge.

Bonobos hug and touch to comfort each other. They laugh when they play. Every night they build leafy beds in the trees.

Bonobos live in communities of about 30 to 80 or more. During the day they split into small parties that forage together, then gather to build sleeping nests in the trees each evening.

Females and their young are at the center of bonobo life. Females form strong friendships, and males tend to follow the lead of older females. Bonobos use touch to reassure each other, call to share news of good food, and laugh when they tickle and play. Scientists have never seen bonobos raid a neighboring group and kill its members, as chimpanzees sometimes do.

Communities of 30 to more than 100 individuals occupy home ranges of about 20 to 60 square kilometers that overlap widely with neighbors'. Membership of the foraging parties of 6 to 15 changes constantly (a fission-fusion society). Females and their offspring form the core; females unite against adult males, and mothers support their adult sons' rank, so males, though larger, cannot be said to dominate females.

Bonobos are diurnal and build new nests each night, usually in the forks of trees, though ground nests have also been reported. Communication includes food calls, rapid vocal exchanges under stress, gestures and touch. Britannica notes that the infanticide, cannibalism and lethal raids on neighbors seen in chimpanzees have never been observed in bonobos, and members of neighboring communities often intermingle.

There are not many bonobos left.

Kind people are working to protect them. Rangers guard their forests, and villages help keep them safe.

The bonobo is endangered. The biggest danger is illegal hunting for meat, which is sold in cities. Forests are also being cleared for farms, and years of unrest have made bonobos harder to protect. Because mothers have a baby only about every five years, bonobo numbers recover slowly.

Counts in protected strongholds suggested at least 15,000 to 20,000 bonobos in 2016. Parks such as Salonga National Park, guards called ecoguards and community-run reserves protect them, and in some places local traditions forbid eating bonobos.

The IUCN assessed the bonobo as Endangered in 2016. Poaching for the commercial bushmeat trade is by far the greatest threat: an estimated nine tons of bushmeat leave one 50,000-square-kilometer conservation landscape in its range each day, with demand from cities, armed groups and poorly paid soldiers. Slash-and-burn agriculture is the second threat, and industrial agriculture is likely to become serious.

Only about 30 percent of the historic range has been surveyed; estimates from the four strongholds give a minimum of 15,000 to 20,000 (2016). Britannica reports fewer than 40,000 at the end of the 20th century and slightly more than 20,000 by 2016. Well-guarded sites, such as Salonga's Lokofa Sector, have fared best, and community reserves such as Kokolopori add local protection.