
Bonobos, once called pygmy chimpanzees, are more endangered than chimpanzees, and much rarer. There are at least 250,000 chimpanzees in the wild, but fewer than 25,000 bonobos.
Bonobos are found in the wild in only one nation, an African country that is plagued by civil war, poverty, and poaching: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where six million people have died due to civil wars since the late 1990s, and national parks are plagued by poachers.
But there is good news: The bonobo population has stabilized in the national park in the Congo where most bonobos live. So bonobos will probably not go extinct in the wild.
That’s according to a study by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior:
For this study, a total, about 43,000 km2 (the size of Denmark) was surveyed for bonobos, of which WCS teams covered roughly a third: part of the northern sector of the Salonga National Park and the “corridor” of land between the northern and southern sector.
“For this study, a total, about 43,000 km2 (the size of Denmark) was surveyed for bonobos, of which WCS teams covered roughly a third: part of the northern sector of the Salonga National Park and the ‘corridor’ of land between the northern and southern sector.
The study estimates the population of bonobos in Congo’s largest protected park, Salonga National Park. For the first time, scientists now know how many bonobos live in Salonga National Park, a place believed to be the world’s stronghold for this Endangered species. The study estimates that 8,000–18,000 adult bonobos live in Salonga. The population number also appears to have remained stable since 2000.
Mountain gorillas are making a comeback in the central African country of Rwanda. A giant pangolin was spotted in Senegal after being absent from that West African country for a quarter century.
Bengal tigers are making a comeback in Bangladesh, as are Asian antelopes and olive ridley turtles, even though Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely-populated nations, with nearly as many people per square mile as cities like Atlanta. (Bangladesh has more than 170 million people living in an area the size of Arkansas).
The snow leopard population has doubled in Kazakhstan. Wild horses recently returned to Kazakhstan after being absent for two hundred years.