The Similarities Between Bonobos And Chimpanzees

The Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and the Bonobo (Pan paniscus) share many similar traits and characteristics but also vary greatly in certain aspects. Tucked away in the jungles of central Africa, Bonobos and Chimpanzees live geographically isolated from one another. This is likely why the two species have developed distinct social behaviors and physical traits from each other. Having a shared common ancestor, the two primates do have a lot in common. They share much of the same genes and are often indistinguishable to the untrained eye.

The distinction between Bonobos and Chimpanzees becomes most apparent when one observes the social behaviors of the two species. Chimpanzees live in a patriarchal society with an aggressive alpha male as

its leader. Daily interactions among chimpanzees often turn violent. The alpha male must constantly be on guard to quell any insurrection in the group. Scientists have routinely documented male chimpanzees attacking and beating female chimpanzees in order to mate or as punishment for disobeying or disrespecting the males. Furthermore, Chimpanzees do not just keep their violent tendencies within their own tribe. Chimpanzees often engage in territorial wars between rival tribes with battles often resulting in mass casualties and killings. As a testament to the uniquely high level of intelligence found in Chimpanzees, Chimpanzees also use strategic maneuvers during battle that range from sneak attacks to full frontal assaults. Performing and planning these strategies requires logical and conscience use of violence as a tool to create order and harmony.
Comparatively, Bonobos have been shown to use violence sparingly, a habit that has garnered them the nickname “The Hippie Chimp.” However, that nickname is deceiving. Besides the fact that Bonobos are a separate species from “Chimps,” Bonobos have been shown to use violence as a form of punishment for rebellious members of the tribe. Unlike Chimpanzees, however, females almost exclusively carry out this violence. In a Bonobo society, a group of strong females lead the entire tribe. Despite being physically stronger and larger, the often solitary male Bonobos are unable to stand up against a more united group of females.
Overall, Bonobos are a peaceful species. Chimpanzees keep strict boundaries between tribes while Bonobos “often allow for overlapping between territories and will even mate across community lines (Boesch, Hohmann, Marchant, 2002, p. 3). While Chimpanzees often use violence as a tool to keep order, Bonobos maintain a policy of “make love not war.” Bonobos have “sexual interactions several times a day and with multiple partners” (Raffaele, 2006). The species has been shown to use sex for everything from avoiding conflict, showing affection, reducing stress, and solidifying social status to simply saying “hello.” Homosexual acts are not uncommon among female bonobos, a practice they use “to create strong emotional bonds and maintain social dominance over males” (Boesch, Hohmann, Marchant, 2002, p. 5). Comparatively, Chimpanzees only have sex for the purpose of mating, not for recreation.
It is known that bonobos and chimpanzees vary greatly when it comes to sexual preferences. It is also known that the two species do not reproduce and raise their young in the same way. In chimpanzee society, infanticide is common. Infanticide is “the killing of offspring unrelated to a male chimpanzee” (Parish, Wrangham). However, because bonobos are so sexually active with almost all members of their tribe, clear lines of paternity become blurred. Without paternity, infanticide is eliminated. This is “a huge evolutionary advantage for female bonobos, because more of their offspring will survive” (Parish, Wrangham). Bonobo young are raised in more of a group setting than chimpanzees. The strong bond between bonobo females allows for them to share responsibilities for raising offspring with the whole group. In chimpanzee societies, females “disperse into the forest with their infants to find enough food to eat” and do not spend large amounts of time with other females.
While Chimpanzee society does not emphasize unit family relations past childhood, in bonobo society, family is everything, specifically the relationship between mothers and their offspring.

According to Bonobo researcher Takayoshi Kano, mothers are “the core of bonobo society, holding the group together” (Raffaele, 2006). Mothers and their children will stay together for their entire lives. Offspring are born into the social class of their mothers. Offspring of respected females enjoy the same privileges as their mother. However, when the mother passes away, her offspring are left to fend for themselves. They start from the bottom of society and must earn their way back up to the top on their

own.
Besides social structure and interactions, Bonobos and Chimpanzees vary in many other ways, including physical appearance and anatomy. To start, Chimpanzees are much larger than Bonobos. So much so that the bonobo was often called “the pygmy chimp,” and was first thought to be a smaller version of the chimpanzee. A mature male bonobo weighs “85-95 pounds and a female, 65 to 85 pounds; a male chimpanzee can weigh as much as 135 pounds” (Raffaele, 2002). The differences do not just stop at pure body mass. Chimpanzees have bodies more accustomed to the terrestrial life they live. However, bonobos spend far more time in trees than Chimpanzees. That is why their limbs are generally longer than those of Chimpanzees. Also, bonobos have been noted to look almost human like. With their “bipedal gait; long, slim arms and legs; slender neck; and a body whose proportions resemble ours more than they do a chimp’s,” bonobos have been compared to Australopithecus afarensis, an early human ancestor that is sometimes known as the “ape man.” Also, bonobos have pink lips and black faces, while chimpanzees have brown lips and faces that discolor with age.
It should not be mistaken that Chimpanzees and Bonobos share many physical characteristics. The two species are the only two in the genus Pan and their “genome is about 99.6 percent identical” (Boesch, Hohmann, Marchant, 2002, 1). Both are covered in black hair, not fur. Both species have flat faces, forward facing eyes, and relatively small noses. This shared facial structure has huge implications for how both species interacts with its environment. It implicates “an increased reliance on vision and a decreased reliance on smell” (Raffaele, 2006). Relying on vision and not smell to carry out daily tasks increases the species abilities to use their advanced minds and fully interact with their environment.
Being the closest living relatives to human beings, it is no surprise that bonobos and chimpanzees are highly intelligent. Both species have formed strict societies and have shown the ability to have conscience thought. However, the two species’ mental capacities vary in several ways because of their socio-ecological environment. Chimpanzees are highly skilled hunters and tool users. Photos of chimpanzees using sticks to pick up termites or rocks to bust open hard fruits and nuts have become iconic. Chimpanzees have been shown to be “dependent on extractive foraging, which requires tools” (Harmann, Hare, Call, Tomasello, 2010, p.1). Chimpanzee’s use of tools may also be caused by the high level of competition for food in their environment. The chimpanzees must develop tools in order to get the food that other animals cannot reach or eat. Comparatively, bonobos live on the south side of the Congo River, “the up to ten mile wide geographic barrier that allowed them to evolve into separate species” (Raffaele, 2006)). The south side’s swampy jungles are more isolated from human encroachment and more bountiful with the foods the bonobos eat. This lower level of competition for food has made bonobos “more skilled at solving tasks related to theory of mind or an understanding of social causiality” than their chimpanzee cousins to the north (Harmann, Hare, Call, Tomasello, 2010, p. 1). Unlike chimpanzees that use tools to obtain food from challenging places, bonobos use tools solemnly. Instead, they forage for fruits and nuts that the south side forest more easily provides.
It is known that bonobos and chimpanzees vary greatly when it comes to sexual preferences.

It is also known that the two species do not reproduce and raise their young in the same way. In chimpanzee society, infanticide is common. Infanticide is “the killing of offspring unrelated to a male chimpanzee” (Parish, Wrangham). However, because bonobos are so sexually active with almost all members of their tribe, clear lines of paternity become blurred. Without paternity, infanticide is eliminated. This is “a huge evolutionary advantage for female bonobos, because more of their offspring will survive” (Parish, Wrangham). Bonobo young are raised in much more of a group setting than chimpanzees. The strong bond between bonobo females allows for them to share responsibilities for raising offspring with the whole group. In chimpanzee societies, females “disperse into the forest with their infants to find enough food to eat” and do not spend large amounts of time with other females (Parish,

Wrangham).
In conclusion, bonobos and chimpanzees share many common characteristics but at the same time vary greatly in many social, physical, sexual, and mental aspects. Because bonobos and chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, studying the differences and similarities between them is essential to biological anthropology and offers key clues to how and why humans evolved to what they are today. In my opinion, bonobos and chimpanzees are very similar but have key differences because of the separate socio-ecological environment the two species call home.