Larger groups could feed together instead of foraging in isolation, allowing females to develop strong bonds to counter male domination, and to mate with less aggressive males, leading a kind of “self-domestication.” This theory posits that the abundant ground vegetation in the bonobo territory provided easy access to year-round food without competition from other individuals. Chimpanzees, however, tend to act more aggressively when encountering other chimpanzee groups and may even have violent exchanges that include fatalities.Ī leading hypothesis suggests that different feeding ecologies were key to the behavioral divergence between the two species. Bonobos are also known for using sexual behaviors to defuse tension - including same-sex behaviors among females. When bonobos encounter other bonobo groups they generally interact peacefully. While bonobos organize into female-led societies, chimpanzees are patriarchal.

Their behavioral differences are much more distinct. Populations of chimpanzees, also an endangered species, are found in a forested belt north of the Congo River and scattered in a few other areas of west and central Africa.īonobos and chimpanzees closely resemble one another physically and they were not recognized as separate species until the 1930s. You can’t help but recognize the similarity in behaviors to humans.” When the mothers tried to wean them, they would sometimes throw tantrums and scream and run around. “It was fun to observe the juveniles twirling around in the trees, chasing one another and trying to pull each other down. “Bonobos are well-known for being playful, even as adults,” Kovalaskas says.

Wild bonobos, an endangered species, are only found in forests south of the Congo River in the DRC. Before joining Emory she spent nine months in the field, studying the social development of juvenile bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Sarah Kovalaskas, an Emory graduate student of anthropology, is first author of the paper. The two species also share around 99 percent of human DNA, making them our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom. “Understanding the physiological mechanisms underlying the differences in chimpanzee and bonobo behaviors - particularly the much stronger propensity of bonobos toward conflict resolution instead of fighting - may also give us information about the genes underlying our own behaviors,” Lindo says. “Chimpanzees and bonobos are fascinating because they are very, very closely linked genetically but they have huge behavioral differences,” he says. Lindo is a geneticist specialized in ancient DNA and natural selection. “We contrasted the genomes of both species to understand how natural selection has shaped differences between the two closely related primates.” “Our paper is the first whole-genome positive selection scan between chimpanzees and bonobos,” says John Lindo, Emory assistant professor of anthropology and senior author of the study. The journal Genes, Brain and Behavior published the comparative analysis, conducted by anthropologists at Emory University.

Now, a whole-genome comparison of bonobos and chimpanzees reveals the gene pathways associated with the striking differences between the two species’ diets, sociality and sexual behaviors. Chimpanzees and bonobos are sister species that diverged around 1.8 million years ago as the Congo River formed a geographic boundary and they evolved in separate environments.

Bonobo vs chimpanzee fight