ATLANTA (AP) -- Call them the sexy apes. Or the feminist apes. Or the gentle apes.
But for some scientists, they can be downright inconvenient apes -- because the little-known bonobo species is hurting old theories that human behavior evolved from warlike, male-dominated chimpanzees.
Bonobos are just as related to people as are chimps. But the females are clearly in charge. They're peaceful. More intriguing: They have sex all the time, not to procreate but to settle conflict or get to know each other -- and unlike other animals, they have it face-to-face with some French kissing thrown in.
"We may be more bonobo-like than we want to admit," says Frans de Waal, a well-known primatologist at the Yerkes Regional Primate Center whose new book, "Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape," is one of the first major works on the rare species.
["And ever since I started taking Viagra," de Waal stated, "I've been even more bonobo-like than I was in high school."]
Chimps, bonobos and people all evolved from a common ancestor 6 million years ago, though most people have never heard of bonobos. The question is what characteristics that ancestor passed to which species, and why.
Bonobos live in just one remote corner of the world, the deep rain forests of Congo. Scientists didn't begin seriously studying them until the 1970s. Fewer than 100 are in captivity. [Coming soon to adult video stores everywhere...
Caged Heat 6: The Bonobo Connection.] There's no word yet on how well they survived last year's bloody civil war in Congo -- Japanese experts only recently ventured back into the bush.
[Uh... no comment.]
[Nope.]
Bonobos have smaller heads, slimmer necks and longer legs than chimps, and a more humanlike posture. They're rather stylish, with red lips and distinctive black hair parted neatly down the middle.
[So, basically they look like a Robert Palmer video would have if he had used chimps instead of women.]
Evolutionists had pictured early humans as decidedly chimplike -- a violent, hierarchical society led by powerful, competitive males.
The bonobos throw a serious kink into that theory. "That coherent picture we had of our evolution is crumbling," de Waal said.
[Hey... be fair. Bonobos throw some "serious kink" into anything.]
First, they embody "sisterhood."
Females are only 85 percent as big as males, yet they band together to take charge. Females leave their original group when they're grown, migrating into new bonobo societies where they bond with other females to establish a spot in the hierarchy.
Unlike chimps, female bonobos control choice food: Males hang around the periphery until they're offered a bite. ["Hey, is dinner ready yet?"] A male's rank depends on his mother's social standing.
Chimps often fight viciously, especially with strangers, even taking over territory by killing the adult males. Bonobos rarely fight. Videos of groups meeting in the wild show them nervous and shrieking but not physically attacking. Gradually, the females approach each other and initiate cautious sexual contact.
[Cue disco music... wakka chikka wakka chikka...]
And sex among bonobos is reminiscent of the Kama Sutra. It's not just
male-female -- they have same-gender sex, oral sex, masturbation, group sex. Like humans, they have face-to-face intercourse, making scientists wonder if they're more emotionally intimate than other animals. In zoos, the average bonobo initiates sexual contact every 1 1/2 hours.
[Any zoo that has these sex-crazed simians apparently charges admission in ten-minute increments.]
Why? De Waal says bonobos basically resolve power issues with sex: It eases conflict, signals friendliness and calms stressful situations. [Tell that to Sultan the gorilla...(see story below)]
--[submitted by Josh Thomson]
from the Monkey Eye in the Sky Traffic 'Copter
