LordBooth Photography

Green season safaris are underrated imo. They are often characterized by “low density” sightings, difficult traversal and challenging spotting, but I’d be lying if I said cats in the green wasn’t one of my favorite combos.

On a misty morning deep in the heart of the Congo rainforest, in the dense wilds beyond the research camp Iyema in the conservation area of Lomako, a wild male bonobo slowly starts his day from the comfort of his well built leaf nest.

Like chimpanzees Bonobos sleep in leaf nests they construct every evening. They never reuse old nests and prefer instead to build a fresh nest every time they need to sleep. Even for short naps for a midday siesta they will build quick nests to take a snooze. An adult can make a quick nest for a nap in less than a minute. The larger evening nests are generally given more attention and time.

Arriving at the nest sight before sunrise always became a where’s Waldo of nest spotting. This was important not just for the researches but also to make sure you weren’t standing under one so you could avoid being on the receiving end of a bonobo’s morning bathroom release.

Images possible by expedition possible by and

in the dense wilds of the Congo rainforest this adult male bonobo sits upright in his leaf nest in solitary contemplation as he gazes into the first light of the dawn sun through the dense leafy canopy.

Every morning our day started around 3am. We had just enough time to throw some porridge and hot coffee in our bellies before setting off on a 60-90 minute hike on average through the pitch black rainforest. Our mission was always the same: arrive at the last know nest site before dawn to observe and wake with the members of the family that were seen the day before. This was my favourite part of every day. It became a meditative ritual. Arriving, taking notes and then waiting patiently, quietly and introspectively in total darkness. Every morning we stood silently in this cathedral of trees while the leaf nests above slowly came to life. The bonobos rising to slowly meet the suns first rays filtering into the dark understory of the Congo rainforest. This ritual could last 5 minutes or several hours depending on their mood, location and proximity to food. No matter the duration it was always magic.

Note a sad and macabre reality of our ability to traverse the rainforest with such speed in total darkness is the lack of threat from forest elephants in nearly all of the DRC. This is to do with rampant Forrest elephant ivory poaching primarily in the 1980s that’s saw a sudden and violent decline of their population by up to 80%. There is a tiny surviving population of Forrest elephants in Lomako but not enough to pose a threat to our traversal.

Images possible by expedition possible by and expedition

Just a picture of a lion for the new year.