Pan paniscus
The bonobo (Pan paniscus), also called the pygmy chimpanzee (or less frequently chimpanzee gracile or dwarf chimpanzee), is one of the great apes and one of the two species that make up the genus Pan. The other species in the genus Pan is the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). While bonobos are now recognized as a distinct species in their own right, they were initially thought to be a subspecies of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) due to the physical similarities between the two species. Taxonomically, members of the subtribe Panina of chimpanzees and bonobos (consisting entirely of the genus Pan) are collectively called panines or panines.
Bonobos are rarely seen outside their natural habitat, so they are not as well known as common chimpanzees. At first glance they look very similar to these, but they usually have a black face, smaller ears and longer legs. Its range is in the dense humid forests of central Africa, an area of 500,000 km² (193,050.2 mi²) of the Congo Basin, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They feed mainly on fruits and leaves that they harvest from trees. Due to the political instability in the region and the shyness of bonobos, relatively little field research has been done observing the species in its natural habitat.
Along with the common chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest extant relative to humans.While neither species are proficient swimmers, the formation of the Congo River between 1.5 and 2 million years ago possibly led to bonobo speciation. Bonobos live south of the river and were thus separated from the ancestors of the common chimpanzee, which lived north of the river. There are no specific data on their population figures, but it is estimated that there are between 29,500 and 50,000 individuals. The species is categorized as endangered on the IUCN Red List and is threatened by habitat destruction and human population growth and movement, although poaching for commercial purposes is the most prominent threat. Bonobos typically live 40 years in captivity; its lifespan in its natural environment is unknown, but it is almost certainly much shorter.
The species is characterized by the tendency for its individuals to walk upright at times, by its matriarchal and egalitarian culture, and by the preponderant role of sexual activity in its society.
The German Ernst Schwarz described the bonobo in 1929. He based it on a skull kept in the Tervuren museum in Belgium, brought back a year earlier by the American anatomist Harold Coolidge as belonging to a young chimpanzee.
Common name
Previously, the bonobo was known as a "pygmy chimpanzee," despite having a body size similar to that of the common chimpanzee. The name "pygmy" was given to it by German zoologist Ernst Schwarz in 1929, who classified the species based on a previously mislabeled bonobo skull, noting its diminutive size compared to chimpanzee skulls.
The name "bonobo" first appeared in 1954, when Austrian zoologist Eduard Paul Tratz and German biologist Heinz Heck proposed it as a new and separate generic term for pygmy chimpanzees. One theory about the origin of the name "bonobo" is that it is a mispronunciation of the name of the village of Bolobo, on the Congo River, near where the first bonobo specimens were collected in the 1920s. However, a more acceptable explanation is that it comes from the word for "ancestor" in an old Bantu dialect.[citation needed]
Taxonomy
Bonobos and chimpanzees are the two species that make up the genus Pan, and are the closest living relatives to humans (Homo sapiens). The Bonobo was first recognized as a distinct taxon in 1928 by the German anatomist Ernst Schwarz, based on a skull from the Tervueren Museum (Belgium) that had previously been classified as a juvenile chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes).. Schwarz published his findings in 1929, classifying the bonobo as a subspecies of chimpanzee, Pan satyrus paniscus. In 1933, the American anatomist Harold Coolidge elevated it to species status. The main differences Behavioral differences between bonobos and chimpanzees were first analyzed in detail by Tratz and Heck in the early 1950s. American psychologist and primatologist Robert Yerkes was also one of the first to observe large behavioral differences.
The bonobo's scientific name is Pan paniscus. Since 98% of their DNA is identical to that of Homo sapiens, they are more closely related to humans than gorillas. Therefore, the scientific community reclassified the taxonomy of the bonobo (and the common chimpanzee), changing its family name from Pongidae to Hominidae, which includes humans.
However, a minority of scientists, such as Morris Goodman of Detroit's Wayne State University argue that since both the bonobo and the common chimpanzee are so closely related to humans, their genus name should be also classified within the human genus Homo: Homo paniscus, Homo sylvestris or Homo arboreus. An alternative proposal suggests that the term Homo sapiens is really the problem, and that humanity should be reclassified as Pan sapiens. However these proposed changes in taxonomy are not feasible, as they would complicate and do not consider the taxonomy of other extinct species that are more closely related to humans; such as those of the genus Australopithecus. For this reason, the scientific consensus does not consider that these changes are necessary or convenient, which are based exclusively on the genetic distance between the chimpanzee and the human being, ignoring other important taxonomic criteria: such as morphological, adaptive, etc.
The common bonobo/chimpanzee line diverged from the human evolutionary line about six million years ago. Since no species earlier than Homo sapiens has survived in the human evolutionary line, both species of chimpanzee are the closest living relative of humans.
The exact time of the last common Pan-Homo ancestor is controversial, but DNA comparison suggests continued interbreeding between the Pan and Homo ancestral groups, post- divergence, until about 4 million years ago. DNA evidence suggests that the bonobo and common chimpanzee species diverged approximately 890,000–860,000 years ago due to the separation of these two populations, possibly due to acidification and expansion of the savannahs at this time. These two species are currently separated by the Congo River, which existed long before the date of divergence, although the ancestral Pan may have dispersed across the river using corridors that no longer exist. The first fossils of Pan were reported in 2005 as coming from the Middle Pleistocene (after the split between bonobos and chimpanzees) of Kenya, along with early fossils of Homo.
According to A. Zihlman, the body proportions of bonobos closely resemble those of Australopithecus, leading evolutionary biologist Jeremy Griffith to suggest that bonobos might be a living example of our distant human ancestors. According to Australian anthropologists Gary Clark and Maciej Henneberg, human ancestors went through a bonobo-like phase in which aggression was reduced and associated anatomical changes occurred, exemplified in Ardipithecus ramidus.
The first official publication of the sequencing and assembly of the bonobo genome was published in June 2012. The genome of a female bonobo from Leipzig Zoo was deposited in the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank) with EMBL accession number AJFE01000000 after previous analysis by the National Human Genome Research Institute confirmed that the bonobo genome diverges by approximately 0.4% from the chimpanzee genome.
Physical characteristics
The bonobo is more graceful than the common chimpanzee, being able to reach a height of one meter. Body mass ranges from 34 to 60 kg, with an average weight of 45 kg in males versus 33 kg in females. The total length of bonobos (from nose to tail on all fours) is 70 to 83 cm. Male bonobos average 111.9 cm when bipedal, compared to 111 cm for females. Their heads are smaller than that of the common chimpanzee, but they have a broader forehead. He has a black face with pink lips, small ears, wide nostrils, and long hair on his head. Females have slightly prominent breasts, in contrast to the flat chests of other female primates though not as prominent as those of human females. The bonobo also has a slender body, narrow shoulders, thin neck, and long legs compared to the common chimpanzee. Bonobos walk upright 25% of the time when moving on the ground. These features, along with their posture, give bonobos a more human-like appearance than common chimpanzees. Also, bonobos have great facial differentiation, just like humans, such that each individual has a significantly different appearance, allowing for visual recognition in social interaction.[citation needed]
Psychological characteristics
Frans de Waal, one of the most important primatologists in the world, affirms that the bonobo is capable of manifesting altruism, compassion, empathy, kindness, patience and sensitivity.
Observations of their environment have confirmed that males in common chimpanzee groups are extraordinarily hostile toward males outside the group. This is not the behavior of male or female bonobos, which have more lax territorial limits and when they meet other groups they tend to establish friendly relations. The bonobo lives on the southern bank of the Congo River, while the common chimpanzee is found north of the same river, where they share their habitat with gorillas. Neither swims, which probably served as a natural barrier.
Bonobos, at least in captivity, are generally considered to be more intelligent than chimpanzees.
Social Sexual Behavior
Sexual relations play a preponderant role in bonobo societies, since they are used as a greeting, as a method of conflict resolution, as a means of reconciliation after them and as a form of payment through favors from both males and females in exchange for food. Bonobos are the only primates (other than humans) that have been observed engaging in all of the following sexual activities: face-to-face genital sex (primarily female-on-female, followed in frequency by female-male intercourse and male-male rubbing), tongue kissing, and oral sex.
Sexual activity occurs both within the immediate family and outside of it, and usually involves both adults and young. Bonobos do not form stable relationships with individual partners. Nor do they seem to discriminate in their sexual behaviors according to gender or age, with the exception of mothers and their children, among whom sexual relations have never been observed. When bonobos find a new food source or feeding site, the general excitement often leads to group sexual activity, particularly between females, presumably venting tension in the participants and allowing for peaceful feeding.
Bonobo males frequently engage in various forms of genital sex (frot) with each other. One form involves both males hanging face to face from a tree while rubbing their penises against each other. Male bonobos have also been observed performing this activity on the ground. A special form of it, used by males as reconciliation after a conflict, is performed with both lying on the ground and rear to rear, while rubbing their scrotal bags against each other.
Bonobo females use female-female genital sex (tribadism) as a way of establishing social relationships among themselves, thus strengthening the matriarchal core of bonobo society. The close relationship between females allows them to dominate the social structure—although males are physically stronger, they cannot face a tight-knit group of females alone, and they do not often collaborate with each other in this way. Adolescent females often leave the group they are born into to join another. This regular migration of females causes the gene pool of bonobos to mix frequently.
Despite the enormous increase in sexual activity, the reproductive rate is no greater than that of common chimpanzees. Females care for and feed their young for five years, and may give birth every five to six years. Compared to common chimpanzees, female bonobos never leave the group to give birth, and there are no known cases of bonobo infanticide, which is common in chimpanzees.
Frans de Waal, Richard Wrangham, and Dale Peterson emphasize the bonobo's use of sex as a mechanism to avoid violence.
Both the common chimpanzee and the bond evolved from the same ancestor that gave rise to humans, and yet the bond is of the most peaceful and non-aggressive species of mammals that today live on Earth. They have developed ways to reduce violence that permeate their entire society. They show us that the evolutionary dance of violence is not inexorable.
The phenomenon of consolation
As in other anthropomorphic apes and humans, third party affiliation —or affiliation contact; for example, sitting maintaining contact, hugging, stroking, scratching, etc.) offered to the victim of aggression by a member of the group other than the aggressor—is also found in bonobos. A recent study found that affective contact, either spontaneously offered by a member of the group to the victim or requested by the victim, can reduce the probability that other members of the group will carry out new attacks on the victim (this fact supports the hypothesis of "victim protection" or victim protection hypothesis). However, only spontaneous affective contact reduces the victim's anxiety, suggesting not only that this unsolicited affection does indeed have a comforting function, but also that the spontaneous gesture—rather than the protection itself—works to calm the victim. subject stressed by aggression. The authors hypothesize that the victim may perceive the motivational autonomy of the comforter, who does not require an invitation (from the victim) to provide post-conflict contact. On the other hand, only spontaneous consolation —and not the requested consolation— was affected by the relationship between the two participants in the act of consolation (in support of the consolation hypothesis or consolation hypothesis), since that the authors observed that spontaneous affective contact fulfills the empathic gradient described for human beings, because consoling occurs more frequently between relatives, a little less between individuals "friends" with good relationships and, significantly less frequently, between acquaintances. Therefore, comforting in the bonobo could be a phenomenon that has an empathic basis.
Other social behavior
Females are much smaller in size than males, but have a much higher social status. Aggressive encounters between males and females are rare, and males are tolerant of pups and young. A male's status is a reflection of his mother's, and the mother-son bond is often very strong, lasting throughout life. Although there are social hierarchies, the rank of each individual does not take as prominent a role as in other primate societies.
Bonobos are active from dawn to dusk, and live in a fission-fusion pattern: a tribe of about a hundred will split up into small groups during the day as they forage for food, then gather at night to sleep. They sleep in the trees, in nests that they build themselves. Unlike common chimpanzees, which have been known to occasionally hunt other monkeys, bonobos are primarily frugivorous, although they also eat insects and have occasionally been seen preying on small mammals such as squirrels or other primates.
Similarities to Human Beings
Bonobos pass the mirror test, which is used to demonstrate self-awareness. They communicate mainly through sounds, although the meaning of their vocalizations is not yet known; however, humans easily understand their facial expressions and some of their hand gestures, such as the invitation to play. At the Great Ape Trust, a center where bonobos are fostered, some of them are taught to talk to communicate, sometimes from birth. Two bonobos, Kanzi and Panbanisha, have learned 500 words of a language made up of lexigrams through which they can communicate with humans thanks to a special keyboard. Some, like bioethicist Peter Singer, argue that these results qualify bonobos to the "right to survival and life," rights that humans theoretically grant to all people.
Habitat
About 10,000 bonobos live just south of the Congo River and north of the Kasai River (a tributary of the Congo), in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa. They are an endangered species, due to both the loss of their natural habitat and hunting for food; the latter has experienced a dramatic increase during the last civil war in the country, due to the presence of heavily armed militiamen even in remote "protected" such as Salonga National Park. Today, a few thousand bonobos at most remain,[citation needed] as part of a much more general pattern of ape extinction.
Conservation and threats
Today, bonobos can still be hunted to extinction by the humans who eat them. The recent civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, fueled by the illegal exploitation of natural resources, has had a measurable impact on bonobos and their total population. Native Americans and local people are increasingly keen to protect their interests and rights, and bonobo conservation efforts are balancing these issues.[citation needed]
Since bonobo habitat is shared with humans, the ultimate success of any conservation effort will depend on the involvement of local people and their communities. The problem of "parks against towns" is very much alive in the Cuvette Centrale, the area of the bonobo. There is strong resistance in the Congo, both locally and nationally, to the establishment of national parks, as indigenous communities have often been driven from their jungle homes by the creation of a park. In Salonga, the only existing park in bonobo habitat, there is no local adherence to the conservation movement, and a recent study indicates that the bonobo, African forest elephant and other species have been severely devastated by poachers. In stark contrast, there are areas where the bonobo and biodiversity in general thrive without defined parks, thanks to indigenous beliefs and taboos against bonobo hunting.
During the war in the 1990s, researchers and international NGOs found themselves forced out of the bonobo habitat. In 2002, the Bonobo Conservation Initiative started the Bonobo Peace Forest Project in cooperation with NGO institutions and national and local communities. The Bonobo Peace Forest Project works with local communities to establish an interlocking constellation of community-based, native-managed reserves. Although receiving only limited support from international organizations, this model, implemented mainly through local organizations and communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, seems to be reaping success as agreements have been reached to protect more than 5,000 square miles of bonobo habitat. According to Dr. Amy Parish, the Bonobo Peace Forest project will be a model for the conservation movement in the 21st century.
This initiative has been gaining weight and greater international recognition, and has recently gained increased support through Conservation International, the Global Conservation Fund, US Fish & Wildlife Services, Great Ape Conservation Fund, and the United Nations Great Ape Survival Project.
Beginning in 2003, the government of the United States of America allocated $54 million to the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. This significant investment has triggered the mobilization of international NGOs to establish bases in the region and work towards the development of plans for the conservation of the bonobo. This recent initiative may improve the species' chance of survival, but its success still depends on its ability to further engage and enhance local and indigenous communities.
Additionally, some groups involved have addressed the crisis situation of these distant cousins of humanity in a multitude of web pages. Organizations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature, the African Wildlife Foundation, and others try to focus attention on the extreme risk faced by the species. Some have suggested establishing a nature reserve somewhere in Africa that is less volatile, or on an island somewhere like Indonesia. Additionally, it is suggested that non-invasive medical investigations could be performed on bonobos rehomed in the wild, with little risk or discomfort to the animals.
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