Alongside the chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest living relative to humans. This is why some of you might have been to study their behaviour, especially if you are studying psychology at A-level. Now you’re being asked to name the new baby bonobo at Twycross Zoo.

Bonobos are endangered, so the birth of a baby bonobo is fabulous news. Twycross Zoo is the only zoo in the UK where you can see all of the great apes, including bonobos and Twycross Zoo is involved in many conservation projects, including the Friends of Bonobos project, Lola ya Bonobo, which provides a sanctuary for orphaned bonobos.

Vote to name the new baby bonobo

If you want to vote on what to name the new baby, you can vote by visiting the Twycross Zoo Facebook page. You can choose from the following names, which have been selected by the zookeepers.

Kasai – this is the name of the river which forms the southernmost boundary of the bonobo’s range

Zamba – this is the word for forest in Lingaga

Mbuma – this means fruit in Lingala and bonobos’ diets are mostly fruit-based

Makasi – meaning strong

Móko – meaning one; bonobos only have one baby at a time

Working at Twycross Zoo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving On visited Twycross Zoo last year, taking student reporter, Amy Corcoran to report on what it’s like to work at the zoo. Amy is a student at Moreton Morell College, studying for an Animal Management Diploma and she met plenty of zookeepers who started their career working with animals in much the same way. We also met Ndeko, the baby bonobo born last year that you can see with its mum in the picture below.

How do you get a job at a zoo?

There are a variety of routes into careers working with animals in the zoo. These include the traditional A-level followed by university route, the full time vocational route, which Amy is following and which lots of the zookeepers that we met followed, and also the apprenticeship route, which is the route that Jenny , who looks after the elephants at Twycross Zoo found was best for her.

What’s it like working at a zoo?

One thing is for sure; every person that we met at the zoo loved their job and found it very fulfilling. If you want to find out more about what it’s like to work at the zoo, you can read our full article here or you can read the full November / December issue of Moving On magazine, which has got load of other great features on how to become a pilot, careers in civil engineering and doing work experience as a CAD engineer.