The former name of the animal whose habitat the Rserve Naturelle Lomako Yokokala was established to protect was the pygmy chimpanzee.
 It was established in 1991 especially to protect the habitat of the Bonobo apes. 
The bonobo ( or ; "Pan paniscus"), formerly called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus "Pan"; the other is "Pan troglodytes", or the common chimpanzee. 
