Searching for bonobos

The five teams started doing a reconnaissance survey to determine the hotspots of bonobo activities, where a grid will be placed to delimit the area of certain activities .

Taking the bonobo nest as a good indicator of the bonobo presence in the area due to its unambiguous characteristics, we could see differences between the sites. 

Three teams found a suitable location for the research area (the grid) during the first reconnaissance survey, and the other two teams had a lower nest encounter rate during the first reconnaissance and needed to survey other areas to identify locations reporting higher bonobo activity. 

Working in the forest can be very challenging, teams need to walk through swampy areas or cross dense fern vegetation that commonly follows forest disturbance as secondary regrowth.

August 2023, By Paula Dieguez