Despite laws against eating endangered species like bonobo apes, meat from half an ape goes for $7 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, far less expensive than the price for beef and easier to get than chicken. Bonobos are on the brink of extinction due to war, habitat loss, and a big-time bush-meat industry. Fewer than 10,000 bonobos remained in 1990, down from 100,000 in 1980. Now, after years of war, the population may have dropped to as few as 3,000. The Bush Meat Crisis Task Force, an international effort to stop poaching, says trade in meat from all types of apes is worth more than $1 billion a year in West and Central Africa.
