Bonobos are the closest genetic relatives to humans alongside chimpanzees and are found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they face threats from bushmeat hunting, habitat loss, and conflict instability.
Bonobo welfare is threatened by the intersection of poverty, conflict, and biodiversity crisis in the DRC. Bonobos killed for bushmeat cause welfare harm at the moment of death and through the orphaning of dependent infants who may spend days with their killed mother before capture. Captured orphans experience acute trauma and require specialist rehabilitation at facilities like Lola ya Bonobo. The peaceful, affiliative social structure of bonobos means that disruption to group cohesion from hunting has psychological consequences for survivors. Bonobos at Lola ya Bonobo demonstrate that individuals can recover psychologically from early trauma and develop normal bonobo social behaviours, including the complex affiliative and sexual behaviour that characterises the species. Successful releases to protected forest represent welfare-positive outcomes that the sanctuary model is achieving incrementally.