Bonobo Zuani

Zuani was my favorite bonobo. How I became her favorite human happened when she escaped and climbed a tree on the INRB grounds. From Grains of Golden Sand:

"When I found her in the tree, she was testing the leaves to see how they tasted, hooting in alarm, and eyeing the solid perimeter fence that was an easy hop from where she perched. Quickly, I rounded up two security guards from the gate and asked them to help me. Near the tree, the men climbed the high wall and threatened the bonobo with waving arms to keep her from leaving the compound. Zuani climbed higher, barking in escalating fear. She totally ignored the goodies I temptingly held out. Stalemate.

Zuani was too far away, and we were too few to get her down. After fifteen minutes the predicament remained the same. Petrified with fright, Zuani clung to a thin bough at the top of the tree. I felt I had no choice and made a rough decision. I gathered up a wad of pebbles from the decorative border around the building and handed them up to one guard to throw at the animal from his vantage on top of the fence. The more athletic man was asked to climb the tree and pretend that he was going after her. They did as told, one energetically hollering and shaking the limbs as he climbed, the other yelling and tossing rocks.

Zuani was freaked out by her two tormentors. She crept out on her branch, farther and farther, screaming. The limb, fortunately, was flexible, and as Zuani backed up its narrowing length the branch started to bend. The tree-climbing man was only about 15 feet below her, moving lithely upward like an enormous python. The fence man was doing his duty, pitching gravel and shouting raucously.

Zuani was on a precarious perch. She was nearly at the tip, and the now-slender whip slowly and gracefully drooped low. Gripping the bough with thin, upstretched limbs, she looked like a hanging teardrop silhouetted against the sky. Lower and lower she swung, screeching bloody murder all the while. She looked down; the only recognizable thing was me. Below, I chanted an inviting incantation: “Zuani, Zuani, it’s me, Zuani.”

Her weight was too much for the branch. It dipped to eight feet directly above my head. She looked up at the mean man who was now above her and peered down at me. I held my opened hands straight over my head. With an ear-splitting scream, Zuani let go and plunged into my arms. Her dead-weight hit and I nearly collapsed to the ground. For a split second, I thought she would ricochet off or bite me first before tearing away. She did neither. She gave a bonobo cry of fear and relief and clung fiercely to my neck. I had saved her from those horrible men!