Bonobo

B[|onobo food chain] [|Crossword puzzle] [|Word puzzle] Bonobo


 * __Scientific name :__ **//__Pan paniscus__//


 * __Morphology/physical characteristics: __**

The Bonobo is sometimes considered to be more gracile than the Common Chimpanzee. Females are sometimes smaller than the males. Both female and male Bonobos have a smaller head then a chimpanzee. It has a black face with small ears, pink lips, wide nostrils, and long hair on its head that creates a part. Females have a bit more prominent breasts, in contrast to some female apes who are flat chested. Unlike the Common Chimpanzee, Bonobos have long legs, narrow shoulders, thin necks, and a slim upper body.The Bonobo walks with both legs about 25% of the time. They walk with all their forelimbs 'palm walking' just like the orangutans. These physical characteristics give the Bonobo an appearance to look more like humans than the chimpanzee. The Bonobo has highly different facial features, as we humans do,so an individual may look different from another. Bonobos are more attractive and human-like than chimpanzees.

__**Habitat/ecosystems:**__ 

There are around 10,000 Bonobos only south of the Congo river and north of the Kasai River. In the humid forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo of central Africa. These animals are endangered species because of habitat lost and hunting for bush meat. The latter activity have increased irrational during the current war. Bonobos are protected in areas such as Salonga National Park. Today there are several thousands of Bonobos remaining. This may be the ape extinction.Unlike the Chimpanzee, the Bonobo is found mostly in lowland rain forests. Its lifestyle is more arboreal than other African apes.



__**Ad**____**a**____**ptions:**__

The lanky body structure of the Bonobo is thought to be an adaptation for climbing and living an arboreal (living in the trees) lifestyle in the rain-forest. The Bonobos weight helps its long legs walk on two legs. They use very simple tools to help in acquiring food and water. For instance, they have been observed stripping leaves from twigs to make probes to get termites and ants to eat. They use sticks to obtain honey from beehives also in tree trunks. Twigs are also used by them at times as toothpicks. Crinkled leaves are employed as sponges to get water from hollows in trees for drinking. Rocks and broken tree branches are used to crack nuts and sometimes throw at other Bonobos just to get them mad.

__**Diet:**__  Bonobos feed on arboreal fruits, leaves,and pith from stems. They are known to eat insects,such as termites, and hunt small mammals occasionally. Bonobos also have been observed to slap water up from a stream and eat either invertebrates or fish. Bonobos would seperate in small groups searching for food, soon they would come back to go to sleep. Bonobos are vegetarian and they have been observed catching small mammals such as squirrels. Fruit is their primary food source. __**Human use:**__

Bonobos have to been considered to be rare species to their own kind because of its habitat limitations and small range. They are threatened by rain-forest destruction and are hunted for food and sold to the pet-trade. They're have been reports from field researchers believe increased poaching of Bonobos for food. One of the major threats to Bonobos is that where they live lies entirely within the country of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There has been political abd social conflicts that may rise in Congo. The recent war had an inestimable impact on Congo's wild Bonobo population.

__**Relatives:** __ Chimpanzees/Orangutans/Gorillas/Monkeys <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">__**Humans(closeness):**__

Actually Bonobos and chimpanzees are the closest animals towards a human. Since Bonobos and humans have the same physical traits, some anthropologists consider Bonobos are the best living prototype for the common ancestor of humans. Its been established through molecular genetic analyses that the chimpanzee genus, //Pan//, is the closest genus to humans. They share about 98% genetic identity. It follows that Chimpanzees and Bonobos share many human-like looks and behavioral traits.

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">By: Anabel Anaya Block 4 Mr. Thorne 5/24/10