KINSHASA, Congo — In a leafy compound on the edge of the Congolese capital, Micheline Nzonzi rocks a drowsy year-old bonobo in her lap, the latest arrival at a nursery that offers the world’s only lifeline to orphaned members of humankind’s closest great-ape relative. Nzonzi, who has been a surrogate mother to baby bonobos for 24 years, is one of a team of caregivers at Lola Ya Bonobo, a sanctuary where infant apes rescued from poachers and illegal pet traders are fed bottled milk, cuddled, and given years of maternal care in the hope they will one day thrive in protected groups — or, in rare cases, return to the wild.
“Without me, without us, these bonobos cannot survive,” Nzonzi said. “They survive thanks to human affection.”
The nursery currently cares for 11 young bonobos, the most recent having arrived in early 2026. Each infant is paired with a dedicated foster mother who will look after it for years before it is deemed ready to join one of the sanctuary’s established bonobo groups, some of which are open to visitors.
The bonobos’ plight is stark. Though legally protected across their range, the apes are still hunted to meet demand for bushmeat in areas far beyond the Congo Basin. The International Union for Conservation of Nature identifies the commercial bushmeat trade as the bonobo’s primary threat. In the 1980s, primatologists estimated about 100,000 bonobos remained in the wild; that figure has fallen to roughly 20,000 today.
Baby bonobos often end up at the sanctuary because poachers use them as bait, said Arsène Madimba, an educator at Lola Ya Bonobo. Captured infants are left to cry, drawing curious adult bonobos that are then shot.
“The bonobos are in danger. We are educating people to not kill the bonobos,” Madimba said. “We can’t kill them, we can’t put them at home as pets, we can’t eat them. Because of poaching, we can find big trading of orphaned bonobos across the country.”
Congolese authorities have proposed a financial incentive to slow the destruction: “bonobo credits,” modeled on carbon credits, that would reward communities for preserving the forests the apes inhabit. The program has yet to begin.
Cultural attitudes toward apes add another layer to the conservation challenge, said primatologist Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, founder of the Uganda-based Conservation Through Public Health group. “There is a cultural difference” between Congo and neighboring Uganda, where apes are not hunted for meat, she said. “In Congo, they believe that you can become as strong as (the primate eaten).”
Once rehabilitated, some bonobos eventually return to the wild, a process that can take years of preparation. Others remain at Lola Ya Bonobo, which opened in 2002 under the sponsorship of the conservation nonprofit Les Amis des Bonobos du Congo.
The bonobo shares nearly 99% of its DNA with humans and, alongside chimpanzees, is among humanity’s closest living relatives. The species was first distinguished from the chimpanzee in 1929, when German anatomist Ernst Schwarz noticed differences in a skull originally thought to belong to a small-headed chimp. In 1933, American zoologist Harold Coolidge provided detailed descriptions that confirmed the bonobo as a separate species.
Bonobos are led by females and known for a notably peaceful social structure. Unlike chimpanzees and gorillas, when two bonobo groups meet, females can switch sides without provoking conflict. The apes also engage in frequent casual mating, earning them a reputation as the “hippie apes.”
In Kinshasa, the trade in primate meat has gone underground. Vendors need permits to hunt antelopes and other species, but trading in any type of monkey is prohibited, partly to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola.
“I used to sell monkeys before, but now we cannot sell monkeys, any type of monkeys,” said Charles Ntanga, a vendor at Masina market. He gestured with a flywhisk at the rancid carcass of a giant rodent, priced at about $17 a kilogram, while a neighboring stall sold python meat steaming in the humid air.
At the sanctuary, zookeeper Frank Lutete paddled across the water to distribute papaya as a troop of bonobos descended from the trees, raising a racket. Some of the apes, he said, tapped their chests as a gesture of gratitude.
Lola Ya Bonobo’s caregivers can identify each animal by name, bonds built over years of bottle-feeding and play. The sanctuary’s existence, and the mothers who sustain it, are a bulwark against a trade that has turned one of Africa’s most intelligent and empathetic species into a threatened commodity.