Conflict in Congo Threatens Bonobos and Rare Gorillas

The war that has gripped the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the past 18 months, killing thousands and displacing many more, is also taking a devastating toll on great apes. The front lines of the war, which involve troops from a half-dozen central African nations, cut through the heart of the range of bonobos, the so-called pygmy chimpanzees famous for their language-learning ability in captivity and their complex social behavior in the wild. Data are scarce and largely anecdotal because most researchers have left the country, but local conservationists have been warning in e-mails over the past few weeks that both bonobos and gorillas are severely threatened in parts of the country.