Christian Ziegler (Germany) records the unusual sight of a young male bonobo gently holding a mongoose pup deep in the rainforest.
Christian tracked a group of bonobos that are being studied by Barbara Fruth of the Max Planck Society. He set out each day before daylight, waded chest-deep through flooded forest and often walked 20 kilometres each day.
Catching up with the group, Christian recalls how 'the bonobo held and stroked the little mongoose for more than an hour, carrying it carefully, as it climbed a tree to eat fruit'.
At first look you might think that this scene is sweet, but it likely has a darker origin. Bonobos are mainly herbivores but do occasionally hunt and eat small mammals. This mongoose pup was eventually released unharmed, but it might have been taken when its mother was killed.
Similar behaviour has been observed at this site before when, following the killing of a female colobus monkey, a bonobo kept her orphaned infant for several days.
Germany
Christian is a photojournalist and filmmaker specialising in natural history and science-related topics. He works for the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behaviour as an Outreach Photographer and is a regular contributor to National Geographic Magazine. He has also been widely published in other magazines, such as GEO, and is a Canon Ambassador and a Founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers.
Help us harness the power of photography to advance scientific knowledge, spread awareness of important issues and nurture a global love for nature.
