![]() Later, the scientists repeated the experiment with three bonobos, one of whom was a stranger. "But we were surprised to see that roommate is more important than favorite food." "In our mind, we thought that because of nice food they would first eat," Kwetuenda says. The bonobo with food was given a choice: eat alone, or use a special key to let in their neighbor. The fruit plate was topped with a type of cream Kwetuenda calls "bonobo sauce." ![]() Then they gave one of the animals a plate of prized food, like bananas or apples, which have to be imported. In one experiment, the scientists put two bonobos in adjacent rooms. They were done in Lola's "bonobo lab," a building that features room-size cages and a place for scientists to observe what happens inside them. ![]() The experiments were carried out by a team that included Kwetuenda and Brian Hare, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. And both of these great apes share 98.7% of their DNA with humans, making them our closest living relatives. The researchers think bonobos may help explain how humans evolved the capacity to be nice – at least some of the time.īonobos look like smallish chimpanzees, with whom they share 99.6% of their DNA. This sort of harmony is why, for more than a decade, scientists from around the world have been coming to this sanctuary just outside Kinshasa, along the banks of the Lukaya River. "As you see, there is many action of sex, many negotiation," she tells me. With chimpanzees, the prospect of food can lead to aggression.īut bonobos take a different approach, says Suzy Kwetuenda, a biologist at Lola, for whom English is a third language. Soon, more than a dozen bonobos have assembled near the grassy perimeter of their enclosure. The air fills with piercing shrieks as bonobos nearby tell their friends in the forest that pineapple is coming. " Allez," caretaker Bernard Nsangu shouts in French as he gets ready to distribute a morning snack. It's feeding time at Lola ya Bonobo, a sanctuary for bonobos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ![]() Esake, photographed at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2019, was rescued from a hunter who killed her mom. ![]()
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