Rare Apes Stolen to be Family Pets

in Animal News on February 11, 2013

Endangered bonobos are being sold as pets in the jungles of central Africa, British conservation experts have discovered. The apes, which are close to extinction, can fetch thousands of pounds on the black market. They are caught by poachers in forests in the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo and taken to ports hundreds of miles away to be sold to sailors who see them as a status symbol. There are thought to be only between 15,000 and 20,000 bonobos, also known as pygmy chimpanzees, in the wild.

Link: Express.co.uk

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