{"id":1448,"date":"2012-03-06T15:56:14","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T21:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=1448"},"modified":"2015-11-12T08:21:49","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T14:21:49","slug":"a-life-with-bonobos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/a-life-with-bonobos\/","title":{"rendered":"A life with bonobos"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gay<\/a>
Gay Reinartz at the Milwaukee County Zoo\u2019s bonobo exhibit. (Photo by Troye Fox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gay Reinartz spends much of her time a half a world away from Milwaukee, working at a remote research station in a vast rain forest in the heart of the Congo Basin. There is no plumbing, running water or electrical service, and the closest medical facility is several days\u2019 travel via pirogue (dugout canoe).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gay Reinartz and Salonga National Park guard Djuma Ndombe surveying bonobos in November 2011. (Photo: Zoological Society of Milwaukee \/ Patrick Guislain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All that is a measure of the passion the 51ÁÔÆæ alumna (\u201997 PhD Biological Sciences) has for her work with bonobos, an endangered primate species related to chimpanzees. Unlike chimpanzees and other great apes, however, bonobos are found only in a narrow range in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).<\/p>\n

Reinartz, a scientist with the Zoological Society of Milwaukee, leads the Bonobo and Congo Biodiversity Initiative (BCBI). She spends six months a year in one of the most biologically diverse areas of Africa, the Salonga National Park. The park is a World Heritage Site and the only national park in the DRC currently designated for protection of the bonobo and the highly threatened forest elephant.<\/p>\n

Her passion for the work is a mix of genuine affection for bonobos and scientific interest, and her research focuses on documenting and protecting bonobos as well as studying the environmental characteristics that influence their abundance and distribution. Reinartz is entranced by the intelligent, gentle ape, one of man\u2019s closest relatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re extremely smart, curious and playful, and they display a remarkable sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Credentials and opportunity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reinartz was working at the Zoological Society when she decided to return to school for her doctorate focusing on population genetics and evolutionary biology. \u201c51ÁÔÆæ was extremely important in helping me get the credentials to speak on behalf of conservation biology and the bonobos.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, it took a while before Reinartz was able to meet bonobos in the wild. \u201cI didn\u2019t have any intention of doing field research,\u201d she says. \u201cI was the mother of two children, and I didn\u2019t speak French [the official language of the DRC].\u201d And in the late 1990s, the Congo was torn by a bloody civil war.<\/p>\n

In 2001, Reinartz finally had the opportunity to go to the Salonga National Park to see bonobos in their natural environment, living in nests high in the tree canopy. She was immediately captivated, seeing the need for both research and protection of the apes and their habitat. \u201cNobody had focused research there [Salonga], and their status was unknown, so there was an element of being in the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, zoos and zoological societies across the country were continuing a shift from just displaying animals in captivity to helping preserve species in their native habitat. It\u2019s a broader \u2013 and more expensive \u2013 mission.<\/p>\n

Conservation challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Gay<\/a>
Gay Reinartz and Salonga National Park guards Bosona Etienne (front) and Djuma Ndombe looking at bonobos high up in the forest canopy in November 2011. (Photo: Zoological Society of Milwaukee \/ Patrick Guislain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The BCBI, which works in partnership with the Congolese park authority and other conservation organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, reflects the complexity of efforts to preserve both creatures and their habitats, while respecting the needs and wishes of local people.<\/p>\n

For years, outsiders and even their own government have stolen natural resources from the people of the Congo, says Reinartz, complicating efforts to enlist cooperation in preserving habitats and species. \u201cLocal villagers are pretty cynical,\u201d she says. \u201cThey have been exploited and neglected for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well-armed poachers engaged in the bushmeat and ivory trade, often with support of local political and military leaders, roam the national park, and Salonga park guards have limited resources for fighting back.\u00a0 Bonobos are often caught in snares meant for other animals, and slaughtered for their meat. Bonobo infants are sometimes captured for sale as pets.<\/p>\n

To counter these dangers, the BCBI is working on two fronts. The first is helping park officials protect the bonobo through training guards and providing the national park with supplies and better equipment, including hand-held GPS (global positioning system) units to help guards navigate through the immense Salonga.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Reinartz and others are working in collaboration with local people to enhance farming and educational opportunities, with the long-term goal of reducing hunting pressure in the national park and reliance on bushmeat as a food and income source.<\/p>\n

An ongoing mission<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reinartz continues to travel deep into the rain forest to document the numbers and locations of bonobos and identify areas of poaching activity in the national park. Because of its size and intact ecosystem, the Salonga is a bonobo stronghold and offers the best potential in the DRC for protecting the species and restoring the country\u2019s once-sizable herds of forest elephants.<\/p>\n

During research missions, she is always careful not to leave signs that might lead poachers to bonobos or to let the bonobos become habituated to humans.<\/p>\n

Tropical diseases, continuing civil unrest and dangerous poachers don\u2019t daunt her, she says, because she takes common-sense precautions, and trusts the skill and expertise of BCBI\u2019s Congolese project team and Salonga park guards.<\/p>\n

Reinartz\u2019s research looks at the bonobo in terms of conserving wild populations in the DRC rather than individual bonobos in a captive setting. As a group in captivity, however, she finds them endlessly interesting. Visiting the Milwaukee County Zoo\u2019s bonobo exhibit, she remarks that she delights in just sitting and observing them as they groom each other and play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never get tired of watching them. They\u2019re just so much a part of my life now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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