A History of the Bonobo
Posted by: Nick Redfern on August 11th, 2012
In a brand new post, Dr. Karl Shuker says:
“One of the highlights of my visit yesterday to Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire, England – famous worldwide for its very comprehensive collection of primates and its excellent record of success in breeding and conserving endangered species – was viewing its breeding group of bonobos or pygmy chimpanzees Pan paniscus, led as is normal for this species by an alpha female (in the common chimp, conversely, it is an alpha male who acts as group leader). Our own species’ closest living relative (putative living Neanderthals excepted!), the bonobo is visibly different in several ways from the much more familiar common chimpanzee…”
This is a very cool article that you can find, in full, right here at Karl’s blog, Shuker Nature.
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
very interesting article 🙂
This is an interesting story from the history of science, but contrary to the claim, no connection is shown to cryptozoology. Everyone knew that these apes existed; the discovery was that they meet the standards of a separate species … maybe, or at least a distinct subspecies. But the concepts of species and subspecies in modern biology have little or no meaning outside modern biology; they’re not the kind of thing that would be “ethnoknown”.
I should have said a distinct genus, or at least a distinct species, since it seems by now well accepted that they are a different species. This doesn’t really change my argument, though. Sometimes the local names indicate a difference that is biologically insignificant (like that between a peach and a nectarine, which can grow on the same tree); at other times, the local names may fail to distinguish between similar but biologically distinct groups.