Bonobos

The beautiful woman on the book jacket cavorting with a baby bonobo might make Bonobo Handshake look like family-friendly fare. But primatologist Vanessa Woods' powerful new memoir is no Curious George (unless you can imagine The Man in the Yellow Hat swept up in a passionate romance and living with endangered apes in war-torn Congo). I came across Woods' book in the course of doing research for an upcoming NOVA scienceNOW website on animal cognition, and it is indeed a window into the...Read Full Story

High social status and maternal support play an important role in the mating success of male bonobos. Success makes sexy - this does not only apply to human beings, but also to various animals. Male bonobos appear to benefit from this phenomenon as well. A team of researchers led by Gottfried Hohmann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has discovered that the higher up a male bonobo is placed in the social hierarchy, the greater his mating success is with female bonobos...Read Full Story

Congo. The researchers' everyday life, far removed from any civilisation, is quite arduous -- even getting to the camp is a small adventure. After an hour-long flight and a gruelling trek through the jungle, the scientists first have to dry their equipment.  A bonobo Only then can they dedicate themselves to the apes. For weeks, they are observing the animals' social and feeding habits. One of the things they want to discover is why bonobo males are less aggressive than male chimpanzees...Read Full Story

Duke University assistant professor Brian Hare and colleagues study the behavior of bonobos, apes that are genetically close to humans A bonobo named Mimi, the alpha female, has a little down time. Credit and Larger Version Primatologist Brian Hare wishes more people could discover what bonobos can teach us about human nature. "I really think they are the smartest ape in the world," he said. "We have a lot to learn from them." Bonobos are genetically close to humans, yet most people know...Read Full Story

On Easter Monday I dropped in to see my parents and dragged the Northerner with me (he wasn’t kicking and screaming, I should add). My mother who is an ace cook and has the love-handles to prove it, made us a wonderful meal: masala chicken; daal; rice and parathas. Unlike me, the Northerner likes to focus his attention on every morsel and rarely utters a word, unless it’s for second helpings. Must be a chef-thing. I on the other hand am happy to continue rabbiting while still being able to...Read Full Story