Saving our closest living relatives from extinction was not on Claudine André's mind when discovered the animals in the Kinshasa Zoo were starving to death in the early 1990s. She just wanted to save the bears and lions and chimps, as abandoned as the rest of the Congo was during its grueling civil war. Then it happened. She fell in love...with a baby Bonobo. And her life was forever changed.

With war raging, there was a steady stream of these captivating orphaned baby bonobos, a highly endangered species, coming into Kinshasa. Separated from their mothers, all they wanted to do was die.

Now Mme. André protects more than 50 of these orphans in the world's only sanctuary for bonobos, "Lola Ya Bonobo" -- "Paradise for the Bonobo" in Lingala, Kinshasa's most prevalent language. Bonobos are the "make love not war" members of our Great Ape family, endemic to only one place on earth:  war-torn Congo.

How were their parents dying? Victims of the "bushmeat" trade, she says. ("Bushmeat" is a fancy word for killing and eating our fellow apes, the bonobos, chimpanzees and gorillas.) Combined with loss of habitat, at the present rate, bonobos will be extinct in the wild in fewer than 10 years.

The sad irony is that this "bushmeat" killing is relatively new. Old taboos against eating the apes broke down during the 6 years soldiers lived in the region where the bonobos live. Suddenly, guns and bullets were readily available. And rich people in the cities of Africa, Great Britain, Europe and North America were willing to pay high prices for the exotic flesh. Mme. André is certain that conservation will never work until people in the forest have replaced hunting for apes with better alternatives.

While Mme. André was feeding the Zoo's animals, she discovered something else. Direct contact with the African children is very, very important in efforts to protect wildlife.

Her "Education for Protection" program is critical to conservation efforts, she says. The young of each species intrigue each other. After the children have seen the bonobos in the sanctuary's forest -- very similar to bonobo life in the wild -- Mme. André says it's important to show the children how intelligent bonobos are. She often shows videos of the world's most famous bonobo, Kanzi. He and the Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary bonobos share a vital role in the world, she says -- Ambassadors for rapidly dwindling numbers of bonobos living in the wild.

In addition to bringing the children face-to-face with bonobos, Mme. André works to introduce new taboos. She alerts children to the dangers of eating bush meat, including diseases like ebola and AIDS coming from the forest. But it's the genetics that make the biggest impression, she concludes.  Pointing out how closely related we are, she tells them, "It's 99% of our genetics. Do you think if you eat them, you are not 99% cannibal or something?" Good question.

[This Program was recorded May 20, 2004, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.]