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

Bonobo Human

• Females have more prominent breasts than other apes

• Bone structure is more similar to humans than any other primate

• Still not as prominent as humans

• Particularly the placement of the foreman magnum

• Bipedal locomotion has been seen rarely in the wild • But not quite so rarely

in captivity

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 mirror-recognition 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