Bonobos ( Pan paniscis ) have generally been considered less savvy than their chimpanzee relatives. More than by their ingenuity and resources, the former have made a name for themselves by their peaceful nature and their free sexual habits. However, research by Itai Roffman, from the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa (Israel), reveals that they are also capable of using tools like primitive hominids.
Three years earlier, Roffman had already observed that two bonobo specimens (the brothers Kanzi and Pan-banisha) raised in a human environment were capable of preparing and using stone tools to get food , but the Israeli researcher set out to observe how they behaved in other less conditioned environments. In this new study, just published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology , Roffman analyzed the behavior of eight specimens from the Wuppertal Zoo, in Germany, as well as that of seven others that lived on the Bonobo Hope reserve, in Iowa (USA). USA).
The challenge faced by both groups was to obtain food that was buried under the stones and bones of large ungulates or in cement capsules. The response of the bonobos in the reserve was immediate, following a logical sequence of actions : first, they removed the layer of stones with their own hands and sticks; then they used twigs to make holes in the ground; then they used larger branches and deer antlers to dig deeper; and, finally, they extracted the food with a long stick as a rod and lever. To get the food that was in the cement capsule, they used the stones and antlers as if they were hammers.
It is the first time that the use of pre-agricultural tools has been documented in other species that are not primitive hominids, it evolutionarily brings bonobos closer to modern man. According to Roffman, the first hominids that used tools made of stone, wood or bone did so due to the scarcity of resources , a circumstance that also pushed bonobos to sharpen their ingenuity, as his study shows. Before, the behavior of these apes had only been studied in their natural habitat, where they had no difficulty getting food.
For their part, the zoo bonobos showed a different behavior: only one female (Eja) manipulated a branch, sharpening it with her teeth to turn it into a kind of spear. Every time Roffman got close, Eja threatened him with her. Nor has an ape been seen before using rudimentary weapons in social contexts of attack and defense. Probably, the researcher surmises, in the zoo he was seen as an intruder, unlike what happened in the reserve.
