Trivia question for Feb-28-2011

Carter searched for quite a while before he can up with today’s trivia.   He said he wanted something that was really unique so let’s see how he did.  These guys are among the least known apes on the planet.  They were first discovered in 1929 and they are much less aggressive then the chimpanzee.

This particular species travels for up to a half a mile in the treetops before descending, unlike chimps, which only stay at the top for a few hundred feet.   These guys are excellent parents and even the males will take-in and care for an orphan.  In 1988 these guys were classified as “Vulnerable” because there were only an estimated 15,000 left.   Today there are even fewer around. Communication between members of their groups is done with facial expressions and with a series of “hoots” which are used to “talk”.

So here are Carter’s questions.   Tell us what these guys are called and tell us how many are believed to be in the wild.  Also, tell us where these rare primates can be found.

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations to both Ty and Gina for getting the answers correct.  You guys are good.  The primate we featured is the Bonobo and they are considered to be the smallest of the ape family.  Since 1996, the first and second Congo wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have had a major impact on the Bonobo population. Bonobos are in danger of being hunted to extinction.

No one really knows how many exactly there are left in the wild.   Around 10,000 Bonobos are found only south of the Congo River and north of the Kasai River (a tributary of the Congo), in the humid forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo of central Africa. They are an endangered species, due both to habitat loss and hunting for bushmeat, the latter activity having increased dramatically during the current civil war due to the presence of heavily armed militias even in remote “protected” areas such as Salonga National Park. Today, at most several thousand Bonobos remain.   This is part of a more general trend of ape extinction.

The Bonobo population is believed to have declined sharply in the last thirty years, though surveys have been hard to carry out in war-ravaged central Congo.  Estimates range from 60,000 to fewer than 50,000 living, according to the World Wildlife Fund with some speculating that there are less than 30,000 left in the world.  Here is more on these amazing apes: Bonobo

Thanks for playing along 😉