permaculture

[Marimike6@cs.com]

(from the New Scientist)

End of the road for wild bonobos

 
11 December 2004 
Duncan Graham-Rowe 
Magazine issue 2477 

The pygmy chimpanzees are so rare they cannot be found - our closest 
relatives are being wiped out  JUST 75 years after being discovered, our 
closest 
living relative is on the verge of extinction. A comprehensive survey of the 
bonobo, or pygmy chimp, indicates that it may have been hunted so intensively 
that 
it cannot survive. 

Bonobos live only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in central 
Africa. Until now, the best guess was that between 10,000 and 50,000 
individuals 
inhabited the country's forests. But the most thorough survey of the species 
ever undertaken has failed to spot a single ape. It recorded the 
vocalisations 
of just one individual and found evidence of the ape's presence, such as 
nests and dung, in just nine of 44 areas studied, and at much lower densities 
than 
expected. 

***

They were nice while they lasted.