thephotosocietyさんのインスタグラム写真 - (thephotosocietyInstagram)「Photo by @christianziegler // A vast wilderness. There are not many places in the world where you can photograph wild bonobos - our closest living relative. Bonobos live only in the dense tropical forests south of the Congo River in Central Africa, it’s a vast expanse of forest, peatlands and savannah that spans more than 2 million km2. The Congo Basin is one of the few wildernesses left on Earth. I spent 12 weeks in 2021 and 2022 following bonobos at Lui Kotale and I got a glimpse of the bonobo’s secret lives. At moments they seemed almost human; the familiarity of their hands or a certain curiosity in their eyes. At other times I felt like an onlooker into their peaceful world, embarrassed by my species, our history and, potentially, our inability to save them in the wild. Bonobos are endangered and protected by law but their numbers continue to drop as they are hunted for bush meat and the wildlife trade, and their habitat is lost. Perhaps just 15,000 of these beautiful animals remain in the wild. But our closest living relative lives here, and only here - south of the Congo River. If bonobos do not survive here, they will not survive anywhere. German researchers from Max-Planck-Institute for Animal Behavior @mpi_animalbehav, Barbara Fruth and her husband Gottfried Hohmann, have been studying wild bonobos for almost 30-years, and 18 years at Lui Kotale. An aerial image of the area where the Lui Kotale research camp is based, on the edge of Salonga National Park, DRC. #congo # rainforest @mpi_animalbehav @thephotosociety @photojournalism @maxine_mpiab @maxplanckgesellschaft Follow me @christianziegler for more images and stories.」12月11日 2時19分