Movie features ‘talking’ bonobo, scientist with D.M. ties
A new movie, to be shown at a Des Moines fundraiser Aug. 27, takes the real-life work of bonobo conservationist Claudine Andre and adds fictional touches, including talking bonobos. Andre, who visited the bonobo-housing Great Ape Trust (now the Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative) in Des Moines years ago, runs a bonobo sanctuary in the only place the apes exist in the wild: Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her story is part of the script for “Bonobos: Back to the Wild,” a mixture of documentary and fiction that follows the life of Beni, a bonobo captured by poachers and then rescued and raised in a sanctuary before being released to the wild, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Ape Cognition & Conservation Initiative is still setting details for the Aug. 27 showing.