When Deni Béchard learned of the last living bonobos matriarchal great apes that are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom he was astonished. How could we accept the disappearance of
this being with so much to tell us about our own past? As he looked more closely though, the challenge of protecting them becomes discouragingly clear: Their home in the Congo rainforest has
been devastated by war and aggressive resource extraction, and the people there are understandably skeptical of foreign intervention.
And yet, when he decides to travel into the Congo with the Bonobo Conservation Initiative, he realizes through hundreds of interviews, days traveling on motorcycles and canoes, and hours
sitting with local guides waiting on apes that poverty does not equate to ignorance, that change requires more than wealth and power, and that only through collaboration can we achieve
sustainable species conservation around the world. An adventure travel story as compelling as it is inspiring.
