Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Animal Science & Zoology Pan paniscus bonobo Pan paniscus bonobo Pan. Paniscus (bonobo/pygmy), chimpanzees, are similar to Pan. Troglodytes (common chimpanzees), in many ways. Because of this, I am only detailing some of the differences. Currently the bonobo population numbers less than 20,000 individuals, the bonobo is listed as an endangered species by the United States fish and wildlife Service. “The bonobo is threatened by forest destruction for forest products and agriculture, they are hunted for food and sale for pet trade” (AZA, 1998, p.2). Bonobo populations have been greatly reduced by deforestation and human encroachment. “The bonobo is in high demand for bio-medical research, since hunting bans are not always enforced, they are heavily poached” (Bonobo, 2000, p.1). “One of the major threats to this species is that its range lies entirely within the country of the Democratic Republic of Congo” (AZA, 1998, p.2). Historically the bonobo is considered a rare species relative to other apes because of its small range and habitat limitations”(AZA, 1998, p.2). The populations are discontinuous and widely scattered. Bonobos live near the Zaire River in the lowland rainforests and swamp forests. “Bonobos can be distinguished from chimpanzees by their more slender frame, longer hind limbs, shorter clavicle, and smaller molars. “It has been established through molecular genetic analyses that the chimpanzee genus, P. paniscus, is most closely related to humans and shares approximately 98% genetic identity” (AZA, 1998, p.1). Bonobos are generally smaller than chimpanzee genus, P. Troglodytes and are less dimorphic, males are only 30% heavier’ (Hodgson, 1998,p.1). “There is sexual dimorphism in the canines where the males’ are longer than the canines of the females”(Flannery, 2000, p.1). “Molecular biologists estimate that the bonobo diverged from its relative, the common chimpanzee, only about 1.5 million years ago”(Kano, 1990, p.1). “The body structure of the bonobo is an adaptation for climbing and living an arboreal lifestyle in the rainforest” (AZA, 1998, p.1). “This little known ape is not really a chimpanzee, gorilla, or an orangutan. It is a very unique creature, whose anatomy resembles that of “Lucy” the most famous find of pre-human skeleton” (Bonobo, 2000, p.1). “Because of the similar morphological traits, some anthropologists consider the bonobo to be the best living prototype for the common ancestor of humans and African apes” (AZA, 1998, p.1). Thus, it would follow that the bonobos have many human-like morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits. “Major foods of the bonobos include fruits, shoots, leaves, seeds, flowers, and bark. An invertebrate source includes ants, termites, bees, crickets, caterpillars, beetles, earthworms, and millipedes. Vertebrate meat sources include rodents, insectivores, and snakes. Fibrous foods (herbs, shoots, pith and ground plant stems) are more important as alternative foods when fruit is scarce” (Hodgson, 1996, p.1). “This species will use over 113 types of plants in a year”(Flannery, 2000, p.1). “This is a diurnal and semi-terrestrial species, although it is more arboreal than P. troglodytes” (Flannery, 2000, p.1). Bonobos have abundant, mutual precopulatory and copluatory signals, variable copulatory postures, and more prolonged copulation’s than most other primates The bonobo gives birth to a single offspring. During estrus, the perineum of the female will swell up (Flannery, 2000, p.3). “Mating is not only done dorso-ventral, as in P. troglodytes, but also ventro-ventral, or face to face” (Flannery, 2000, p.4). Female adult bonobos give birth to one infant every five years and gestation lasts about eight months (AZA, 1998, p.2). The common male chimpanzees will kill the offspring in order to re-mate with the female; thus the killers eliminate the offspring of the sexual competitors and provide themselves with mates (Kano, 1990, p.3). Bonobos on the other hand do not kill the offspring of another male, but share in the responsibility of providing for it, this is because there is no sexual competition. (Kano, 1990,p.3). Therefore, they increase their survival and reproduction rate. “The body weight of the bonobo is differently portioned, and the center of gravity is shifted lower- making it possible for the bonobo to stand more erect and frequently walk bipedally” (AZA, 1998, p.1). Like “Lucy” the bonobos are more bipedal than chimpanzees or gorillas. It can also walk quadrupedally in special position called knuckle walking. In trees, this species also moves in a quadrupedal manner (AZA, 1998, p.1). The bonobo can communicate vocally through distinct set of calls, scientists have found that bonobos can learn language even though they cannot talk as we do because their vocal tract is shaped a little differently (Bonobo, 2000, p.1). “ They can only make very high sounds that are difficult for us to understand, though they communicate well among themselves” (Bonobo, 2000, p.1). Scientists at Georgia State University’s Language Research Center have found that the bonobos can understand our spoken language although they cannot speak it clearly(Bonobo, 2000, p.1). “Bonobos easily learn symbols that represent things of interest to them and use these symbols to communicate” (Bonobo,2000, p.1). Bonobos have learned the English language and to communicate with us in captivity(Bonobo,2000, p.1). They have also learned how to construct and use many different tools (Bonobo, 2000, p.1). They can communicate visually through set facial expressions and specific movements with their mouths. Bonobos can communicate with tactile communication, that is movement of the hands and arms (patting, hugging, touching). “There is also submissive mounting, reassurance mounting, and social grooming” (Flannery, 2000, p.3). “Bonobos are frequently found in mixed age and sex groups with adults, juveniles, and infants of both sexes freely associating with each other”(AZA, 1998, p. 2). There is a less pronounced dominance hierarchy in the bonobo’s social structure, and unique among great apes, a greater prevalence of strong female-female bonding, as opposed to male-male bonding in common chimps” (AZA, 1998, p.2). They are found in bisexual communities, or unit groups, which range in size from 50 to 120 individuals. “The communities are closed social networks within which individuals forage partly independently”(Hodgson, 1996, p.1). “Bonobo societies are different from those of many other primates in that the females and not the males transfer between groups”(Hodgson, 1996, pp.1, 2). “Females leave the natal groups as older juveniles or in early adolescence (7-9 yrs.) and transfer to another group, in which they breed and grow old”(Hodgson, 1996,p.2). “The older females maintain strong bonds with their grown adult sons and occupy the highest ranks among the females of the group, males on the other hand, stay in their natal group and acquire rank based on their mother’s rank” (Hodgson, 1996, p.2). In a Bonobo society, females play the dominant role. “Bonobos are highly social, they have developed a set of ritualized socio-sexual behaviors which are specific to their species” (AZA, 1998, p.2). “Sexual behaviors have evolved to function as social forces, and sexual behaviors are displayed by individuals of all ages” (AZA, 1998, p.2). Bonobos have some kind of sex everyday. Copulation between male and female adults when the female is not in estrus is a normal occurrence; there is a higher frequency of homosexual behavior among bonobos of all ages (Kano, 1990, p.4). The bonobo is the only primate besides man who engages in mating for purposes other than procreation (Small, 1992, p.2). “Among the females, genital-genital rubbing or G-G rubbing is common and serves to communicate reassurance” (Kano, 1990, p.4). Females will lay on top of one another face to face and move their pelvises so that the clitoris of each rubs together, male juveniles will rub each other’s genitals and place their mouths on each others genitals (Flannery, 2000, p.4). Young bonobos often join in with the adults when they are having intercourse (Flannery, 2000, p.4). Adult males will rub rumps and scrotums (Kano, 1990, p.4). Both males and females will solicit copulation (Flannery, 2000, p.4). The bonobos sexual acts include intercourse, G-G rubbing, oral sex, mutual masturbation, and even a practice that humans once thought they had the patent on: French kissing (Nichols, 2000, p.1).“Sex is the way the bonobos deal with the tension of competition” (Small, 1992, p.2). Among most animals, for example, tensions arise at mealtime, when there is often troublesome competition for food (Nichols, 2000, p.1). “Other animals, including human beings, generally eat meals before copulating, in the bonobo society, sexual play precedes meals, reducing the competitive quarreling (Nichols, 2000, p.1). Bonobo sex is casual; sex saturates bonobo social interaction, its not driven by orgasm, it is not often reproductively driven (Nichols, 2000, p.2). The bonobo is rapidly becoming extinct, we as “superior beings” need to focus on the damage that we have done and are doing to the bonobos and other species, or they will be lost to us forever. How will we explain to our children that the only way they will ever see beautiful animals like the bonobos is in pictures because we have wiped every single living one out of existence? If by some chance that the bonobos are our distant ancestor, and we have lost their species due to our stupidity, we will have lost a wealth of information! AZA Species Survival Plan. (1998, September 1) University of New Mexico explorer server. Explorer 5.0 Internet http://www.aza.org/programs/ssp.cfm?ssp=17 The Bonobo. (2000, November 9) University of New Mexico explorer server. http://www.geocities.com/endangeredsp/AfricaM11.html Flannery, S. U. of Wisconsin – Madison. (2000, November 9) Pygmy chimpanzee. University of New Mexico explorer server. http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/factsheets/pan_paniscus.html Hodgson, E. (1996, January 23) University of New Mexico explorer server. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/acounts/pan/p._paniscus$narrative.html Kano, T. (1990, November ). The bonobos peaceable kingdom. Nichols, J. (2000, November 9) University of New Mexico explorer server. http:///badpuppy.com/gaytoday.garchive/events/402397ev.htm Small, M. (1992) What’s love got to do with it? Bibliography: Word Count: 1651
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