Bonobos, or dwarf chimpanzees as they are also called, are known for their unique social abilities. It has long been known that bonobos live in societies dominated by females, and that they are often friendly towards strangers. It is also the females who eat first and who decide when it is time to mate.
The fact that females have the most power despite males being significantly larger has long fascinated researchers. Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute have studied wild dwarf chimpanzees in the Congo-Kinshasa and have gotten to the bottom of it.
It's about the females, when conflicts arise, grouping together and forming alliances, thereby challenging a threatening or aggressive male. This can, for example, involve a female screaming extremely loudly and thereby drawing the attention of other females. The male who is targeted is chased among the treetops by a group of screaming females, which, according to researchers, can even lead to a deadly outcome.
The frequency with which females formed similar alliances varied between different groups of bonobos. But the more often they did it, the higher status the females seemed to have.
The researchers, who are publishing their results in the journal Communications Biology, write that they are amazed that the bonobos have developed this type of hierarchy between the sexes and that the question of why may never get its answer.
