Why bonobos are awesome

They sleep in nests that they construct in trees. Bonobos communicate using a wide range of vocalizations and gestures. They are the most vocal of the great apes, using complicated patterns of vocalizations to communicate detailed information.

The communication system of wild bonobos includes a characteristic that was earlier only known in humans: bonobos use the same call to mean different things in different situations, and the other bonobos have to take the context into account when determining the meaning. Breeding occurs throughout the year. Females reach sexual maturity at approximately 12 years of age. The gestation period is thought to be between and days. They normally give birth to a single young. Infants are born virtually helpless and must be carried everywhere by their mothers for the first two years.

Youngsters stay close to Mom for several years while they grow and learn how to be a part of bonobo society. The mother gives birth every five to six years, allowing her time to bond with each offspring.

Apart from their number 1 predator, humans — crocodiles and leopards are also a threat. The species is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and is threatened by habitat destruction and human population growth and movement, though commercial poaching is the most prominent threat. There is no concrete data on population numbers , but the estimate is between 29, and 50, individuals. Along with the common chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest extant relative to humans.

Because the two species are not proficient swimmers, the formation of the Congo River 1. But bonobos—and their sexual appetite—had long been ignored by researchers for all of these reasons. They didn't fit it with the human-evolution story, while Jane Goodall's chimpanzees did.

And the bisexuality, casual sex, and non-aggro males didn't fit in with the way society was. Yet, bonobos seem more like humans in almost all of these ways. Pleasure and cooperation may have been more important in human evolution than we've ever realized, and as Hitt's story shows, that's pretty great. California desert town takes back the night, wins rare "Dark Sky" award.

The U. The International Astronomical Union has established a committee to finalize a list of official star names. Some companies offer unofficial naming rights for purchase. But the voices of certain communities are often left behind. Another experiment tasked the bonobos' responses to yawning , an activity that is known to spread between individuals — humans as well as bonobos — triggered by a form of empathy.

But do you have to know someone, in order to empathize with them enough to "catch" their yawn? Not if you're a bonobo, according to the study. The scientists discovered that the bonobos were just as likely to join in when confronted with an unfamiliar yawner — they yawned along with a stranger as often as they did when the yawner was part of their social group.

When female bonobos reach adulthood, they abandon the social group of their youth for another, unrelated group. Being able to quickly bond with strangers would therefore be a critical strategy for these highly social primates, Jingzhi Tan, a postdoctoral associate with the evolutionary anthropology department at Duke University in North Carolina, said in a statement. You want to be nice to someone who's going to be important for you. The findings were published online Nov.

Original article on Live Science. Mindy Weisberger is a Live Science senior writer covering a general beat that includes climate change, paleontology, weird animal behavior, and space.