Our Kissing Cousins

Congo. Nightmare or paradise? The history is heartbreaking, almost unbearable, and yet Deni Béchard’s The Last Bonobo: A Journey into the Congo provides hope that paradise may reassert itself. The bonobo or Pan paniscus was assumed to be a chimpanzee until very recently, when close observation revealed dramatic differences. Where the chimpanzee is male dominant, warlike and rapacious, the bonobo is matriarchal. Alliances are made by females and a male’s rank depends on his mother’s. In fact, the bonobo is entirely unlike the chimpanzee, although both of them are so closely related to us that some researchers believe they should be classed in the Homo genus. Which do we most resemble? Known as the “make love not war” primate, the bonobo exhibits sexual behaviour that in every possible combination replaces aggression. Unrelated groups mingle instead of fighting. The species’ most striking achievement is not tool use or warfare but an evolved empathy. Can we...