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When your kids misbehave, maybe you tell them to stop acting like a bunch of chimps. Well, that would be an insult to the familiar common chimp, Pan troglodytes, which actually grows up pretty fast. Now bonobos, the other chimp species, or Pan paniscus, enjoy horsing around well into adulthood. And a study in the journal Current Biology suggests that their laid-back development keeps bonobos forever young.
The two chimp species are closely related, but when it comes to behavior, there’s little resemblance. While common chimps can be aggressive and incredibly self-serving, bonobos are playful and even prone to sharing, traits that common chimps display mainly when they’re young.
What drives the differences? To find out, scientists observed the apes at all ages. And they found that even as juveniles, common chimps quickly learn to interact preferentially with people they discovered had treats. But bonobos were much more social, approaching experimenters even when they were empty-handed. In fact, adult bonobos rarely reached the levels of psychological sophistication shown by baby common chimps.
So, infinite common chimps on infinite typewriters might churn out Hamlet. Infinite bonobos would more likely produce South Park.
—Karen Hopkin
[The above text is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
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14 Comments
Add CommentOr this article! Couldn't resist.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHumans seem like a mix of troglodytes and paniscus. Perhaps we should call ourselves 'pan troglodiscus'.
Shouldn't socialization be a sign of sophistication?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think that the capacity to be socialized is a quality that is expressed when young, since that's when an animal needs to be sociable in order to relate to it parents, siblings and others in its social set and not be driven to dominance since in its young stage it is dependent on others and not yet in a reproductive mode. As animals mature they must compete with others to be reproductive and to sustain itself and so dominance over-rides socialization instinces.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe famous experiment with the Siberian foxes which were selected for being non-aggressive and consequently more sociable, matured more slowly and carried those social traits into adult hood, and surprisingly, a suite of other traits that are associated with juveniles such as paedomorphy. The process is called 'neotony', if I recall correctly. I wonder what would happen in Chimps were selected artifically for non-aggressive behaviors for mating to see if social attitudes as well as some of the other traits associated with bonobos wouldn't also be expressed. '
It leads to the question if somewhere in our ancestral past we too transited to the non-aggressive and sociable forms which include the paedomorphology of large heads, hairlessness, retained vocalization and proclivity for social bonding and cooperation. As we became more social those males that retained socialablity into adulthood would be selectedby for mating preferentially by females looking for mates who could cooperate and benefit from the strengths inherent in apes that lived socially and cooperatively to get resources, which is a switch from pre-social norms whenn dominance as expressed by aggression was the preferential route to genetic success.
Forever Young !!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPan troglodiscus , that means: "the cave disc"! Not bad, though- it brings up the association of a cave squatter, about to invent the compact disc- or the wheel..I visited the Bonobo toddler at Twycross Zoo who behaved much like his human counterpart would..,watched over by his loving Mum & aunties, and using his own little body as a wheel , by somersaulting from one clan member to the next; and all of them showing much more social intelligence than the hysterically screaming Troglo's next door!-Incidentally
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI could not stop myself writing an evolutionary fable, introducing the Clan of Pan as three bright-eyed kindred cousins: Pan Troglo, Pan Panisco, and Jim Pan C, the Grandaddy of Peter Pan "Baby Face", soon to become the brainiest of them all. Their offspring would later become famous for inventing such world firsts as, Pan handles, Pan-tomimes, Pan-demics, and Pan-demoniums..
For more evolutionary parallels between the three chimpanzees, visit www Youthevity.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan the observations describing the bonobo chimps as more social (less sophisticated) be applied to humans who are "nice" and socially cooperative, but also may be more apt to be gullible or victimized by the more "aggressive" humans?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswell that was a cute one :) I do agree that we as humans are just like chimps and that we sometimes act crazy and wild. And also chimps learn to make tools and work with them to make food for there family. And that just how we do it. Granted we have others make the tools for us. But in the long run we do have a little chimp is us. :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think a large part of the Bonobo's behavior has to do with the whole "monkey see, monkey do" saying. I believe if a chimp is born into a group of other chimps that are laid back and playful, that chimp is likely to follow along and do the same. Chimps will learn to follow what the rest of the other chimps are doing! Just like humans, babies learn from what they see others do and by copying that behavior.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisits amazing how monkeys are differnt type living behavior. for exampe chimps can be aggressive and they are self-serving, on the other hand bonobos are playful and even prone to sharing. i'm very interested to read this article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisits so funny how animals are just like humans. they clean, give themselves a bath and hunt (buy) there food and they have kids. But chimps are known the most for being like humans and I think its very true. And I think its cool that there behavior can be tested and shown that they run just like us. To bad chimps cant talk like we can or they would be like our second society or family. Either way I think its great that we can relate to different things then just other humans. What will they come up with next???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think that the Bonobo's behavior is all based on observation of other monkey behavior. If a money is born in to a relaxed environment then the baby monkey will be very relaxed. But it the environment is very stressful the monkey/ chimp will be very stressful. Monkeys/chimps are almost the same thing, its all depends on how you rise them up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think they way anyone behaves acts mainly on an environment their growing up in and how adults act around you because kids do pick up things from their parents.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShaking the head to mean `no`.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe video I have seen was taken in a zoo.
I think the chimps learned the technique from humans - the article is putting the cart before the horse.
How much behaviour of this kind has been observed in the wild? Chimps, like humans, are clever and capable of mimicry and acquired knowledge.
Come on `scientists`, you can do better.