Download Bonobo apes

Ben Wareing
Biology-1090
Reflection Paper
Are there any other intelligent species?
Bonobo apes
Westerners saw few bonobos until the second half of the 20th century. Discovered in 1929,
the forest where they range covers much less area than the chimpanzees’ forest and it was off the
track frequented by early explorers/colonialists.
They live south of the river, and thereby were separated from the ancestors of the common
chimpanzee, which live north of the river. Bonobo’s are one of human’s closest relatives sharing
98% of our DNA. These great apes have displayed complex behavior with profound intelligence
and sensitivity. Bonobos have opposable thumbs meaning that they can touch each of their
fingers with their thumb. Bonobos are better suited to bipedal locomotion (walking on two feet)
than other apes their anatomy is similar to Australopithecus, one of human’s ancestors. A typical
female stand just over 3 feet tall and an average of 65-70 lbs males are in the range of standing 4
feet and 85-90 lbs.
Bonobos observers have witnesses the apes create and use a variety of tools. Bonobo’s
society is considered peaceful, promoting bonding, reduced tension and shared pleasure is used
to describe daily life. They are the most vocal of all the great apes using complex patterns of
vocalization to communicate detailed and complex information. They will often use hand
gestures to accompany communication. With a few high pitched squeals and vocalizations they
can communicate where the food is and how it tastes to all others within range. They are
classified as endangered, there is no concrete data on population numbers, but the estimate is
between 29,500 and 50,000 individuals. These apes are frugivores (fruit makes up half of their
diet) but will also eat insects, worms, eggs, and even small mammals. They appear to have a
female dominate society, meaning the female has a higher social rank than males. Typical
communities of bonobos live in a population of roughly 100 that will split into small groups that
search for food during the day and all return to the larger group to sleep at night, where every
night they make a different “nest” in the trees by weaving vegetation in the canopy.
Sexual activity plays a large role in their society, used for pleasure, social bonding and
conflict resolution. They do not form permanent monogamous partnerships and have multipul
sex partners with no regard to age or gender except that a mother will avoid her adult sons.
Are bonobos closer to humans than chimpanzees?
Not possible. The split between the two Pan species happened millions of years after man had
already taken a separate path. It has been suggested though that bonobos might be the closest
living model of the “missing link”. That missing link was a creature of 6 million years ago.
CLASSIFICATION
Apes are classified in the Linnean System as follows:
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Kingdom Animalia (all animals)
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata (animals with backbones)
Class Mammalia (warm-blooded animals with fur and mammary glands)
Order Primates (which is comprised of 11 families, including lemurs, monkeys,
marmosets, lesser apes, great apes, and humans)
Suborder Haplorrhini
Superfamily Homonoidea
o Family Hylobatidae (meaning "tree dweller" - the lesser apes,
including gibbons and siamangs)
 Genus Hylobates (with 9 species of gibbons; since gibbons do not cross
bodies of water, major rivers isolate each of the species.)
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Species H. agilus - the agile gibbon (or dark-handed gibbon)
Species H. concolor - the crested gibbon (or the black gibbon or
the white-cheeked gibbon)
 Species H. hoolock - the Hoolock gibbon
 Species H. klossii - Kloss' gibbon (or Mentawai gibbon)
 Species H. lar - the white-handed gibbon or the common gibbon
(consisting of three subspecies)
 Species H. moloch - the Javan gibbon (or silvery gibbon, or whitebrowed gibbon)
 Species H. muelleri - the Bornean gibbon
 Species H. pileatus - the pileated gibbon (or capped gibbon)
 Species H. syndactylus - the Siamang (the biggest gibbon, with
dark fur, an inflatable throat sac, and a very loud call)
Family Hominidae (the great apes, including gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos,
and orangutans)
 Genus Pongo (orangutans)
 Species pygmaeus
 Subspecies (perhaps a subspecies) P. p. pygmaeus (with a
round face and dark red hair; found in Borneo)
 Subspecies (perhaps a subspecies) P. p. abelii (with a
narrow face and paler hair; found in Sumatra)
 Genus Gorilla (gorillas)
 Species gorilla
 Subspecies G. g. gorilla - the western lowland gorilla
(found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon,
Congo, and Equatorial Guinea)
 Subspecies G. g. graueri - the eastern lowland gorilla
(found in eastern Zaire)
 Subspecies G. g. beringei - the mountain gorilla (found in
Zaire, Rwanda, and Uganda)
 Genus Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos)
 Species troglodytes - the Chimpanzee
 Subspecies P. t. verus - the western subspecies (found in
Côte d'Ivoire, plus some small populations in Guinea,
Sierra Leone, and Liberia).
 Subspecies P. t. troglodytes - the central subspecies (found
mostly in Gabon, also from eastern Nigeria to the Ubanghi
River and south to the Zaire River).
 Subspecies P. t. schweinfurthi - the eastern subspecies
studied by Jane Goodall (found from southern Lake
Tanganyika in Tanzania, and from there northwards to
Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and southern Sudan).
 Species paniscus - the Bonobo or pygmy chimp, from Zaire, along
the Zaire river.
 Genus Homo)
 sapiens (humans
The earliest-known primates date from about 70 million years ago (Macdonald, 1985). The
greater apes (family Pongidae, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans) split off from the
lesser apes (family Hylobatidae, gibbons and siamangs) 20 million years ago.
These apes cannot only understand language, but some of them can convey their thoughts and
feelings to humans and to each other by pointing to any of hundreds of symbols on lexigram
keyboards.
Kanzi, an alpha male, who has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to communicate on our
terms.
Not only can these apes communicate, but they can tell us what they want, think and feel. The
desire for a fruit or taste to one of the apes has led him to create a new word in our language.
When tasting a strawberry for the first time, when asked what he thought of it he replied using
the symbols banna-berry. These apes have recently been given I pads and seem to navigate them
fairly well and rapidly becoming more and more diverse in their language and learning skills.
Also they have adapted some of our human English words to their vocabulary amongst
themselves, although it is high pitched and fast. Researchers recorded and then slowed, and
toned down the play back and were amazed to hear English words that they understood.
Given the evidence of the cognitive and problem solving abilities of these great apes in my
opinion these apes are superior intelligence, how many animals do you know that can use an I
pad?
Sources:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/apes/Classification.shtml
Pearson learning solutions-Biology 1090-copywright 2005-copywright 2010-Colleen Belk, Virgina Borden
Maier. Salt Lake Community College, Custom Edition
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bonobos/