Research

Lola ya Bonobo welcomes researchers since their findings provide another powerful tool for educators to use in order to capture the minds and hearts
of the future friends of bonobos.

Lola ya Bonobo’s mission is to assure the conservation and welfare of bonobos. Researchers can play an important role in helping Lola ya Bonobo meet both its conservation and welfare goals. People protect what they respect and people respect what they understand. Researchers can help us understand more about the hidden details of bonobo life and this understanding can then be used to capture the imagination of all ages. When people learn fascinating facts about bonobo life that careful research uncovers, people want to protect bonobos.

Lola ya Bonobo welcomes researchers since their findings provide another powerful tool for educators to use in order to capture the minds and hearts of the future friends of bonobos.

However, given the number of demands for research at
Lola ya Bonobo, there is an application procedure to
ensure that research is productive but at the same time
as non-intrusive to the Sanctuary’s work as possible:

All researchers must submit an application to conduct research at Lola ya Bonobo, with reviews of research applications conducted four times a year, on or about 15 January, 15 April, 15 July and 15 October. The application procedure allows us to coordinate the timing of different research projects while functioning as our main mechanism for quality control. We have many requests from students and researchers and we use the application procedure to ensure that researchers who visit have a chance to accomplish their own research goals and that these goals complement and do not conflict with those of the Sanctuary and other researchers.

If you are interested in research at Lola ya Bonobo, please fill in the application form and send it to the Research Coordinator

Dr. Brian Hare : b.hare@duke.edu
Download research application

All students must first have their research advisor contact Brian Hare on their behalf.

Research leaders of ongoing research

Brian Hare, Duke University, studies of bonobo behaviour,
emotion and cognition in comparison to chimpanzees and humans

Svante Pääbo, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology,
Studies of bonobo genetics and evolution

Richard Wrangham, Harvard University, studies of bonobo behaviour,
emotion and cognition in comparison to chimpanzees and humans

Klaus Zuberbühler, St Andrews University, bonobo
communication in comparison to other primates

Students interested in working with these people, please contact Brian Hare.

Andre, C., Kamate, C., Mabonzo, P., Morel, D., Hare, B. in press. The conservation value of Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary.
Takesi, I., Thompson, J. (Eds) Bonobos Revisited: ecology, behavior,genetics, and conservation. Springer, New York. Download

Hare, B., Melis, A., Woods, V., Hastings, S., Wrangham, R.
"Tolerance allows bonobos to outperform chimpanzees in a cooperative task." Current Biology 17 (2007): 619-623. Download

Pika, S. & Zuberbühler, K. (2007). 'Social games between bonobos and humans: Evidence for shared intentionality?'.
American Journal of Primatology, 69: 1-9. Download