Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
ing reintroduced, attacked and injured the trackers. In light of the resemblance between the bonobo
and human nervous systems, bonobos who have been traumatized in their youths and who have
seen human hunters kill their mothers and even their entire families might become as volatile as we
would. How many of our novels and films are based on the violent actions of a human with PTSD,
who, as a child, experienced brutality or witnessed murder? Kidnapped by traders, the bonobos
of Lola ya Bonobo spent weeks or months tied up inside baskets or boxes, starved and covered
with parasites. Then they found themselves in a sanctuary, raised by human “mothers” in a culture
of similarly traumatized bonobos. Whether bonobo, gorilla, or chimpanzee, apes—once they have
lived with humans—exhibit changes in their behavior, and whereas wild bonobos have never been
witnessed attacking people, those raised in captivity, with human “mothers” to bottle-feed them,
are more comfortable with humans and may do so. However, it is also possible that even without
their trauma, the dramatic change in their environment and the release from the pressure of con-
finement after so many years into a freedom whose limits they did not yet understand could have
led the bonobos to test their boundaries and behave atypically. Apes are significantly stronger than
we are, and can injure or kill with blows that, directed at another bonobo, would simply express
frustration. (In conversation, John Scherlis explained this view of the apes behaving differently
after the pressure of confinement.)
Michael “Nick” Nichols writes, “Former captives can never be truly wild, and may be danger-
ous to humans as they have lost the fear of man and know their own strength compared to his.”
Given their level of familiarity and pain in relation to humans, it is no wonder that an attack the
likes of which has never been seen with wild bonobos, during centuries of humans and bonobos
living side by side, could occur with those raised in a sanctuary. Nichols,
The Great Apes: Between
Two Worlds
, 122.
174
Male chimpanzees battle
Wrangham and Peterson explain: “Chimpanzee males form alliances,
as we have seen, which are crucial for their success in gaining and keeping high rank. Bonobo
males don't. . . . But bonobo males are less aggressive with each other for another reason as well:
They are much less concerned about who mates with the females. Among chimpanzees, copulation
attempts by low-ranking males are often stopped by high-ranking males, especially near ovula-
tion time. This happens very rarely among bonobos.”
Demonic Males
, 211-12, referencing Take-
shi Furuichi and Hiroshi Ihobe, “Variation in Male Relationships in Bonobos and Chimpanzees,”
Behaviour
130 (1994): 211-28.
175
Wrangham and Peterson describe
Wrangham and Peterson,
Demonic Males
, 204-5.
175
Even recent brain studies
James K. Rilling et al., “Differences Between Chimpanzees and
Bonobos in Neural Systems Supporting Social Cognition,”
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuros-
cience
(2011), doi:10.1093.
175
He goes on to explain note 1:
Kano,
The Last Ape
, ix.
note 2:
Mary Smith, the
National Geographic
editor who specialized in great apes, remarks
that, unlike Western scientists, the Japanese “attribute a reasoning mind” to their subjects and
see them as composing “cultural groups.” “A History of Research,” in Nichols,
The Great Apes:
Between Two Worlds
, 33.
175
The flexible nature of note 1:
Frans de Waal writes: “This makes gesture the better candidate
for early language evolution. If our ancestors used gestures in the same flexible manner, this may
have provided a stepping stone for the evolution of symbolic communication, which may have
originated in the gestural rather than vocal domain (e.g. Corballis 2002).” “Foreword, Behavioral
Study Section,” in Furuichi and Thompson,
The Bonobos: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation
,
13, referencing Michael C. Corballis,
From Hand to Mouth: The Origins of Language
(Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2002).
