It is believed that this subspecies of chimpanzees is the closest to humans of all animals on the planet. The set of genes of bonobos coincides with the set of human genes by 98%. Bonobos have long been considered an example of friendliness - they resolve all conflicts through sexual contacts instead of aggression. And in vain: it turns out that dissolute monkeys kill and eat the children of other primates. The feminine principle, under which the flocks of bonobos are located, did not make them more peaceful
Such attributes of human behavior as aggression and the desire to seize resources, for which it is worth uniting efforts, are firmly associated in modern society with the dominance of the masculine principle. True, the years of emancipation did not seem to have changed the world. Bonobos monkeys, or pygmy chimpanzees, demonstrated another confirmation that one should not blame all the cruelty and insidiousness of life on the mighty male shoulders.
Together with their older cousins, common chimpanzees, these primates form the genus of chimpanzees from the subfamily of hominids, which is closest to humans. However, despite their close kinship, these two species show dramatic differences in social structure. Colonies of common chimpanzees are built on the principle of male dominance with the ensuing behavioral features - aggression and collective hunting for other primates.
Bonobos, as pygmy chimpanzees are called, in contrast, live in communities dominated by females. And if the analogy with the hippie movement is appropriate here, then the bonobos can certainly be placed in the vanguard of such a monkey movement.
Pygmy chimpanzees are best known for their "frivolous" behavior and promiscuous intercourse - both between members of different sexes and between same-sex individuals.
These relationships serve as their universal means of greeting, resolving disputes and, of course, reconciliation after the height of confrontation. In the end, bonobos were never seen hunting their fellows and if they ate meat, it was only small forest rodents, squirrels or antelopes.
After spending more than five years in the forests of the Congo Republic, Gottfried Homann and Martin Zurbek of the Leipzig Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology of the German Max Planck Society have now shown reliably that pygmy chimpanzees are not at all as pacifists as they seemed to be.
Bonobos hunt, kill, and eat other primates. Moreover, they eat children.
After which, they probably continue to indulge in "debauchery".
The researchers carried out their observations in Salonga National Park. Here, over several years of close observation, scientists have managed to accustom a colony of pygmy chimpanzees to their presence, consisting of 9 males, 12 females and 12 individuals who have not reached sexual maturity (which, by the way, does not prevent bonobos from attracting them to sexual pleasures). During the observation period, scientists were able to record three successful cases of hunting for monkeys and two cases of disrupted hunting. In all three cases, bonobos were eaten by juvenile monkeys that did not enter adulthood.
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According to Homann and Zurbek, the bonobos' attack on their distant relatives was carefully planned.
The pygmy chimpanzees changed their usual migration route in advance, as soon as they heard the presence of a colony of monkeys from the family of monkeys. Then they, maintaining a regime of complete silence and silence, crept up to the colony of unsuspecting monkeys. The monkeys crept through the trees slowly, quietly and low above the ground. Once directly under the colony, the bonobos inspected the site and prepared for the upcoming attack. At the same time, several members of the colony settled down on the ground near the trees, closely watching the prey. This was followed by a sudden and quick attack.
Unlike the process of preparing an attack, the section of prey for bonobos is accompanied by noisy cries. The happy owners of the carcasses of the captured monkeys do not part with their prey. However, like ordinary chimpanzees, pygmy ones actively share their prey with their fellow tribesmen and do not protest when they themselves are fed with pieces of meat torn from their own prey.
Until now, scientists believed that bonobos lost their ability to hunt other primates when they adapted to their ecosystem, which favored female dominance in orders.
Homann and Zurbek are in no hurry to draw conclusions and accuse their predecessors of hasty conclusions. In their opinion, the flock of bonobos they watched may have learned to hunt recently. However, scientists believe this option is still unlikely; most likely, hunting cases have not been noticed before simply due to a lack of such research. Bonobos are found only in the valley of the Congo River, they were described only half a century ago and are still poorly understood. The early naturalists to describe this species were probably quick to endow the pygmy chimpanzees with labels that fit so well with the speculative theories of social behavior popular at the time.
The hunt for monkeys can be explained by a simple lack of food. The climatic conditions in the national park are such that periods of abundance of plant food here can alternate with periods of lack of food. However, why other animals - rodents and squirrels - are not suitable for these purposes, is still difficult to explain. In addition, there are known cases of peaceful coexistence of bonobos with monkeys or cases when bonobos entered into a deadly confrontation with them, but did not eat the defeated.
Hohmann and Zurbek conclude their work with an example of modesty worthy of emulation by other scientists, proclaiming the inadequacy of their own observations. Further observation of pygmy chimpanzees is likely to elucidate the evolutionary, ecological, and social reasons for the dominance of aggressive apes.