Chimps Kill for Land | With Bonobos, Cooperation Is the Rule

GreenTracker| University of Michigan primate behavioral ecologist John Mitani cautions us not to apply the conclusions drawn in his study of violence and land seizure by bands of Ugandan champanzees to humans. Ultimately, he says the scientific application is about the evolution of cooperative societies and not the inherent violence of males. 

Being the scientific word police two weeks in a row, we jump on the press release’s inference that the female-led bonobos are like the chimps:

Chimpanzees (along with bonobos) are humans’ closest living relatives. Anthropologists have long known that they kill their neighbors, and they suspected that they did so to seize their land. via Science Daily

Female-led bonobos behave very differently than chimps and they manifest very different social skills from chimps. 

We may be seeing a constellation of research around animal behavior that has huge implications for humans, in spite of John Mitani’s urging that we not apply chimp behavior to human men.  Science owes it to humanity to undertake a clear look at the research implications for chimps and bonobos being so closely linked, yet manifesting very different behaviors. 

If gender rules, in the big picture — and one is deadlier for living things — then we must accept the reality of our gender-based fate. Read on Chimpanzee Gangs Kill for Land, New Study Shows

See Bonobo Apes Make Love Not War AOC

Bonobos Share Food Willingly AOC

Are we hardwired to kill? Psychology Today

Vanessa Woods is the author of Bonobo Handshake and is a research scientist in evolutionary anthropology at Duke Universithy. Her new book is: Bonobo Handshake.