Love | Peace Bonobos Share Food Willingly

GreenTracker| A study of bonobo chimpanzees, humans’ closest living relatives, supports the idea that humans are’t the only species not to share. Bonobos consistently share food.

In the study, bonobos had to choose whether to eat some food by themselves or to give another bonobo access to it. The test subjects had the opportunity to immediately eat the food or to use a “key” to open a door to an adjacent empty room or a room that had another bonobo in it. The test subjects could easily see into the adjacent rooms, so they know which one was empty and which was occupied.

Researchers don’t know why the bonobos share. Perhaps to gain food in the future.  We’re investigating this study much further.

The Science Daily article doesn’t mention that the bonobos are a matriarchal society, where free-love rules the day, but Anne of Carversville is well-informed on this topic. We’re also aware that researchers now know that bonobos, including females, hunt other primates.

The chimps aren’t vegetarians, but attempts to cast bonobos as no different than Wall Street bulls, based on hunting other primates, may be a premature character assasination, given their newly discovered innate tendency to share.