BONOBO
GENERAL INFORMATION
• Location: Democratic Republic of Congo
• Between the Walaba and Sankuru Rivers
• Gestation: 8 months
• Doesn’t mean that they’re pumpin’ out babies on the reg
• Height: Males—2.4-2.7 ft
Females—2.3-2.5 ft
• Males are bigger, that means that they dominate, right?
• Weight: Males—86 lb
Females—68 lb
*Fun Fact* The word “bonobo” means absolutely nothing. So if you
thought it was science mumbo-jumbo like the rest of those animal
names, you were dead wrong.
• 99.5% of their DNA is identical to
humans
• Females have more prominent breasts
than other apes
•
Still not as prominent as humans
• Bone structure is more similar to humans
than any other primate
•
Particularly the placement of the foreman magnum
• Bipedal locomotion
has been seen rarely
in the wild
•
But not quite so rarely
in captivity
Bonobo
Human
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
• They live in a large community
that is then divided into smaller groups
• The group of the Bonobos is very mixed, young will associate with
adults of either sex unlike many other ape groups.
• Relationships between females are one of the most important links
within the bonobo society
• Females gain more rank as they mature
• There is a scale for male rank but it is much smaller and bonded in many
ways to their mother
• For a male to achieve "alpha status" he must become associated with the
alpha female
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
• Low levels of aggression
• Disputes are most commonly controlled by sexual
relations
• Aggressor very rarely re-attack once they have been
together
• "The majority of mounts and matings occur in tense
situations.” “Conflict resolution is the more
fundamental and pervasive function of Bonobo
sex." Sex in Bonobo society is definitively a
mechanism for keeping the peace.
SEXUAL/MATING HABITS
• Sex transcends reproduction, as it does in humans serves as a way of bonding, exchanging energy,
and sharing pleasure
• seen in all aspects of life of bonobos
• Function to keep the society together, and maintain
peaceful, cooperative relations
• conflict can be eased by sexual activity
• also engage in same-sex encounters
• males tend to be polite and not vehement in their
demands - ask the female first - non-aggressive
manner - female has option of refusing a male
INTELLIGENCE
• Bonobos are highly intelligent, emotional, and
sensitive creatures.
• Bonobos are also capable of passing the mirrorrecognition test for self-awareness. They
communicate through vocal means and
understand facial expressions, and hand
gestures.
INTELLIGENCE
Kanzi—a 26 year old male Bonobo that is able to converse with humans.
o Can use 348 symbols and learned meaning of up to 3000 spoken English
words.
o The symbols refer to familiar objects (yogurt, key, tummy, bowl), favored
activities (chase, tickle), and even some concepts considered fairly
abstract (now, bad).
o Learned to combine these symbols in regular ways, or in what linguists
call"proto-grammar.”
o Once, Savage-Rumbaugh says, on an outing in a forest by the Georgia
State University laboratory where he was raised, Kanzi touched the symbols
for"marshmallow"and"fire."Given matches and marshmallows, Kanzi
snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the
marshmallows on a stick.
Video of Kanzi conversing with humans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE
DIETS
• Fruit and terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (THV) and meat
• THV is considered leaves, shoots, flowers, and pith
• Also eat invertebrates and small vertebrates
• Their diet is somewhere between chimps and gorillas based
on what is consumed the most (fruits, THV, and meat)
• Utilize over 110 species of plants as food sources
• Preference fruit
• THV eaten for protein content
• Eat insects, mollusks, squirrels, snakes, fish, shrimp
SOCIAL HABITS/BEHAVIORS
• Social habits and behaviors
• Territories are defended by strongly male-philopatric kin groups
• Foraging parties are much larger than chimpanzees
• Females emigrate from their natal communities at sexual
maturity and establish themselves in neighboring-community
ranges
• New females form bonds with one female at a time until they are
able to be central in their new communities
• Older females are more high ranking
• Males are strongly philopatric
• No territorial aggression like in chimps
• Communities exist more peacefully than chimps but not completely
• As bonobo party sizes increase the percentage of the party that is
male also increases
REFERENCES
Rafert, J. and E.O. Vineberg (1997) Bonobo Nutrition – relation of captive diet to wild diet. In:
Bonobo Husbandry Manual American Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Stanford, C. B. (1998). The Social Behavior of Chimpanzees and Bonobos, Emperical Evidence
and Shifting assumptions. Current Anthropology Vol 39.4
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/speakingbonobo.html
http://www.bonobo.org/
http://www.unl.edu/rhames/bonobo/bonobo.htm
http://www.zoosociety.org/conservation/Bonobo/WhatIs.php
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/bonobo/behav
http://www.jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleo/primates.html