AS A symbol of conservation failure, it doesn’t come more potent than this: the bonobo, our closest relative and as iconic a species as there is, has been hunted close to extinction in its only habitat. A survey by WWF and others in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has found scant evidence of the animals and abundant evidence of poaching (see “No bonobos to be seen in the wild”). In biodiversity terms, this may be no more tragic than the fate of the thousands of other species facing extinction. But this one feels personal.
Perhaps for that reason,…
