Bonobo monkey

Bonobo monkey review

1. Bonobo monkeys are a type of Ape. They are closest
ape, genetically speaking, to humans and we share
over 98% of our genetic makeup with them. In the
wild, they live only in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, which is why we know less of bonobos than
other monkeys like chimpanzees, close cousins of the
bonobos.
The Bonobo Monkey
Bonobos are threatened for a number of reasons including:
Human induced habitat loss
Disease
Intrinsic factors

Human induced habitat lossoccurs mainlydue to commercial logging. Commercial logging
causes loss of biodiversity, climate change, desertification, and watershed degradation.
There is increasing concern that the Congolese government will begin to rely more heavily
on timber extraction as it provides a key economic opportunity. Because of these future
plans, commercial logging is the perceived to be the largest threat to bonobos in the
Democratic Republic of Congo over the long-term.

Disease threatens the bonobos due to pathogenic and parasitic diseases that affect them in
the wild. Bacterial infections can range in severity from latency to death. They are affected
by viruses including poliovirus, measles, herpes and hepatitis proving their similarity to
humans.Exposure to certain epidemics could lead to rapid extinction of bonobos. The
transmission of disease between species increases as humans and bonobos come into
closer contact because of population growth, habituation to researchers, and hunting,
increasing chance of disease.

Intrinsic factors affect the population of bonobos because they are long-lived creatures and
mature slowly, producing few offspring over their lifetimes, so growth rates are increasingly
slow. Because of these qualities, disturbances can have effects on overall population. For
example, when two populations that used to come into contact are separated by an
impassable barrier, such as a logging road, gene flow between the two communities ceases
and problems such as inbreeding occur.
Research has shown that due to these factors there may be as few as 10,000 bonobos left
in the world.