A swath of Congo rainforest larger than the state of Massachusetts will be designated as a nature reserve in a collaborative effort between American and Congolese environmental groups and agencies. Advocates hope the reserve will be a significant step toward protecting the endangered bonobo, one of humans' closest ape relations. Bonobos, which live only in the Congo, are often targeted by poachers. They are also the only primates other than humans known to have sex not just for procreation, but for pleasure. And if that's not worth preserving, we don't know what is.
They Tried to Make Me Go to a Reserve, I Said Bonobo
Congo nature preserve set up to protect bonobos 5
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Posted 11:04 AM on 20 Nov 2007
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dearjulia Posted 6:26 am
20 Nov 2007
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hikerreese Posted 4:05 pm
20 Nov 2007
Anyway, how do they know that other animals don't enjoy sex. My dog seems to think its great. I will admit he doesn't seem to have much finesse.
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John former Marine Posted 10:06 pm
20 Nov 2007
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caniscandida Posted 6:42 am
21 Nov 2007
In animal-rights ethics, it is a bit controversial what status the closeness of an animal's evolutionary relation to human beings should have. Should chimpanzees and bonobos receive more consideration from us than, say, gorillas? Should we have regard for all the great apes, but not the gibbons? Do we draw the line around all apes, but not the monkeys? Or about all apes and monkeys, but not lemurs?
Really, all living creatures on this planet are related, and we owe them all respect. That does not at all mean that we must treat them all the same. But we should recognize that their lives have value; and being independent living beings, they have interests of their own, which our human interests do not automatically trump.
Anyway, human beings are all related to other human beings even more closely than to bonobos, and see how far that realization has got us! Why, the recent history of just the DRC itself might tempt us to abandon all hope.
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SteveNLee Posted 7:04 pm
27 Nov 2007
That said, it is a tiny area that we're talking about here. At 11,000 square miles the area of this reserve is only around 1% of the Congo. Still, as there may be as few as 5,000 of these creatures left anything that gives them a fighting chance for survival is a good move. Let's hope their newly found freedom get's them into the party swing and sees their promiscuity sky-rocket their population.
C'mon guys, it's party time. Party time!
Steve N. Lee
Author of eco-suspense thriller 'What if...?' and
free eco-guide 'An Inconvenient Doofus' available from http://www.Steve-N-Lee.com
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