14 DAY TRIAL // According to the report in the journal Biodiversity Conservation, just 28% of the bonobos' living in the Democratic Republic of Congo range is suitable for this species.
The animals are presently considered endangered, so conservationists were not in the least thrilled to learn that just fairly small patches of land can serve as a home for this species.
"Bonobos are only found in lowland rainforest south of the sweeping Arch of the Congo River, west of the Lualaba River, and north of the Kasai River," lead author Jena Hickey told Mongabay.
"Our model identified 28 percent of that range as suitable for bonobos. This species of ape could use much more of its range if it weren't for the habitat loss and forest fragmentation that gives poachers easier access to illegally hunt bonobos," the conservationist further explained.
The over 30 researchers who worked on the report resorted to nest counts, remote sensing imagery and computer modeling to pin down the whereabouts of Congo's remaining bonobo population.
While researching the bonobo range in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they managed to pin down 2,364 one-hectare areas containing bonobo nests.
Furthermore, they say that of the total bonobo range documented in this part of the world, 27.5% is located in protected areas.
This means that, if protection is extended to other regions, the species might still have a chance of making a comeback.
“The fact that only a quarter of the bonobo range that is currently suitable for bonobos is located within protected areas is a finding that decision-makers can use to improve management of existing protected areas, and expand the country's parks and reserves in order to save vital habitat for this great ape,” explains study co-author Innocent Liengola,” as cited by Mongabay.
In their paper, the researchers further detail that, as far as they could tell, bonobos have figured out that it's best to avoid areas close to agricultural lands and roads.
Thus, few apes belonging to this species have been found to inhabit either such regions, or areas where humans regularly go to hunt.
“Distance from agriculture and forest edge density best predicted bonobo occurrence. These results suggest that bonobos either avoid areas of higher human activity, fragmented forests, or both, and that humans reduce the effective habitat of bonobos,” the researchers reportedly write in their paper.
Conservationists say that this species can only be found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are related to chimpanzees, but are smaller than them. Females have been documented to be the dominant members of their society.
Unlike other species, bonobos turn romantic whenever they have to solve conflicts. Because of this, they have been nicknamed the “make love, not war” apes.