From Malta to the Jungle: A Young Conservationist's Bonobo Mission in Congo's Heart

From Malta to the Jungle: A Young Conservationist's Bonobo Mission in Congo's Heart Dreaming of ditching your desk for a real adventure? Meet Francesca Grillo, a 24-year-old Maltese researcher who actually did it. She’s now living deep in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), tracking one of our closest animal relatives: the elusive bonobo. This is her story of "African fever," groundbreaking primate research, and life in one of the planet's most remote rainforests. 🌿 “I Got the African Fever”: The Call of the Wild Francesca “Chess” Grillo’s journey didn’t start on the Congo River, but with the pages of Gerald Durrell’s adventure books and the iconic film *Gorillas in the Mist*. These stories sparked a lifelong obsession with primates and conservation. “I found primates fascinating. They have their own cultures, their own societies, their own politics,” Grillo explains. This passion led her first to Guinea, West Africa, for five months to study chimpanzees—an experience that left her with a hip injury, managerial challenges, but most importantly, an incurable case of ‘African fever.’ “I always looked back at my time there thirstily and with a longing for more,” she recalls. ✈️ The Grueling Path to the Congo Basin Returning to a desk job in Malta, Grillo couldn’t shake the dream. In August 2024, she took a leap of faith. She quit her job, worked remotely for the Bonobo Diversity Project (BonDiv), and embarked on a visa odyssey that involved a 26-hour bus ride to Rome because Malta lacks a Congolese embassy. After frantic vaccine updates, wisdom teeth removal (knowing dentists were inaccessible in the jungle), and grueling logistics, she finally landed in Kinshasa. On October 13, 2024, she arrived at her new home: the vast and remote Salonga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest tropical rainforest reserve in Africa. 🐒 Inside the Bonobo Diversity Project: Why This Research Matters Grillo now serves as a researcher and field manager for the BonDiv project, one of the most ambitious efforts to study wild bonobos (*Pan paniscus*). Often overshadowed by chimpanzees, bonobos are equally close to humans genetically but are far less studied. They are known for their matriarchal, cooperative societies and are found only in the dense forests south of the Congo River in the DRC. The project aims to collect a year’s worth of data—using camera traps, botanical surveys, and social research—across 30 different sites in the DRC. This data will be compared with the PanAf Project data on chimpanzees to fundamentally understand the differences between these two great ape species. “Despite their importance, bonobos remain enigmatic. We’re piecing together the puzzle of their survival,” says Grillo. 🛶 Life at the Edge of the World: Mud Huts, River Showers, and Community Reaching her camp is an expedition in itself: a charter plane, a drive, and finally a boat ride upstream the mighty Congo River. The camp houses about ten people, with Grillo as the only expatriate. Life is bare-bones but resourceful: mud houses, bucket showers, and meals of rice, fufu, and fish cooked over an open fire. “It feels like we have our own little village here,” she notes. Communication is in French and Lingala, a local lingua franca she is quickly learning. The team includes local assistants and dedicated “trekkers” working to habituate bonobos for future conservation tourism. Logistics are a constant challenge, with simple errands sometimes turning into multi-day boat trips plagued by engine failures and storms. “You always have to add *jours d'imprévu*—unforeseen days—to any plan,” Grillo laughs. 😰 The Realities of Fieldwork: Mud, Insects, and Magic Fieldwork is physically brutal. The rainy season brings knee-deep mud, swarms of sweat bees, stinging caterpillars, and exhausting humidity. “You definitely have to be prepared for discomfort,” Grillo admits. Yet, the rewards are unparalleled. Finding fresh bonobo nests, hearing their distinctive vocalizations echoing through the canopy, or spotting feeding signs provides an adrenaline rush. “It still fascinates me when I think about how these human-like creatures are living right here,” she shares. The deep ecological knowledge of her local teammates is equally humbling; they navigate the dense forest without GPS, using an intrinsic understanding of the land that no outsider can match. 📈 The Bigger Picture: Conservation in a Critical Landscape The work here is urgent. The bonobo is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with population estimates ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 individuals, though accurate numbers are difficult due to their remote habitat and political instability. Their survival is threatened by habitat loss from logging and agriculture, as well as hunting for bushmeat. Salonga National Park itself, at over 36,000 km² (an area larger than Belgium and about 115 times the size of Malta), is a critical sanctuary. Projects like BonDiv are vital not only for science but for training local conservationists and providing data to support protection policies. Grillo’s presence highlights a growing trend of young scientists from across the globe committing to long-term, on-the-ground conservation in the world’s most challenging environments. 📝 Sharing the Adventure: “Il-Kawlata” and the Less-Trodden Path Francesca Grillo shares her journey in the Substack newsletter "Il-Kawlata," publishing field diaries and stories in Maltese and English to convey the true beauty of conservation work. By the Congo River, she is living her dream, one step at a time.