Make Love Not War: What Bush might learn from the disappearing Bonobos

Bonobos, famous as the "hippie chimps", are in danger of extinction in the Congo.

SAMIDHA SATAPATHY

7 March 2006
MUMBAI, INDIA

100,000 Iraqi soldiers and $61.1 billion (according to Wikipedia) might have been saved by the U.S. Congress in 1990-1991, had President Bush only been a Bonobos. These 'Hippie chimps,' famous for preferring to resolve conflicts through sex rather than violence, are in danger of becoming extinct. One hopes that world leaders are listening to what this simple advocate of peace has to say about dealing with international conflicts. These 'hippie chimps' greet rival groups with genital handshakes and sensual body rubs, and solve spats with a quick round of sex.

Bonobos (pan paniscus) are native to Congo and live on treetop nests. Today only 5,000 may remain, down from an estimated 100,000 in 1984, according to Guabini, a primatologist with the World Wildlife Fund.

According to him, "There is no question that bonobos are seriously threatened." "We need urgent measures or there is no way we can protect the species." The species has been dying out for various
reasons: their meat is prized in Congo, and heads to expensive restaurants for a high price. According to poachers, a single bonobos can earn as much as $230 Cdn, which can support a villager for almost two months. Even officers supposed to protecting them eat their meat sometimes as it is considered extremely tasty.

Poachers find it easy to catch them while they are asleep or drunk (on beer left by poachers) and use guns or poisoned meat to kill as many as 20 bonobos at a time. A majority of the hunters are unemployed militiamen left over from a string of rebellions, coups and conflict that ravaged Congo beginning in the mid-1990s.

In some villages, there is a tale about the bonobos which actually discourages hunting them: according to the lore, the bonobos was once a man who went to hide in the forest after an angry tree stripped him of his clothes. The story may seem reminiscent of Adam feeling shameful of his nudity. But today the bonobos have become a symbol of "peace and love" according to Sally Coxe of the Washington-based Bonobo Conservation Initiative, who said that "to let them die off would be a catastrophe." The Bonobo Conservation Initiative is working with these villagers who believe in their preservation to create a series of reserves.