Touched by a bonobo

Bonobos were "discovered" relatively recently in the history of primatology. Orginally, researchers thought they were small chimpanzees and named them pygmy chimps. After long observation and with genetic methods, these primates were identified as a unique species. They are different from chimpanzees in many ways - they live in a distinct area of the Congo, they are physically smaller and darker colored, and most notably, they like sex. They really like sex. Some researchers here think this particular facet of their behavior has been exagerated by the popular press, but bonobos generally engage in more frequent and diverse sex acts than other primates: male-female, male-male, female-female as well as many positions including the very human-like missionary position.

I've been watching the 5 (plus an infant) bonobos here hoping to see some hoka-hoka (the renowned female-female genito-genital rubbing - really, that's the technical term) but nothing too exciting has happened. The adults seem to play more than adult chimps and use burlap sacks to initiate play, but I haven't seen any sex at all.

And then came feeding time. Now, the chimps get all fired up about feeding, hooting and banging as they wait for the doors to open. The bonobos make a lot of noise too, but they also get excited in an entirely bonobo-like way. When the doors opened for these guys to enter the sleep room (where the evening feeding occurs), I had no trouble figuring out who the males were. All 3 males were fully erect and yelling and banging on everything. (I'll pass on a detailed morphological description, but let's just say that the relevant appendages are more plantain-like than human-like).

For this feeding, the zoo-keeper let me feed the apes directly, passing slices of melon, apple and bananas through the metal grid. My first handoff was to Joey, the largest male and a bit of a head-case. Joey spent a year in solitary confinement at another facility before coming to Pongoland and he developed a number of behavioral ticks as a result - twidling his thumbs and opening and closing his lips. This day, Joey was even more edgy because I was in the room, a new face. On my first attempt to pass food to him, my fingers got too close and he grabbed at them. I pulled away in time, but got a scratch that started to bleed. I cleaned it and sprayed with iodine (knowing what these guys do with their fingers) and was able to continue.

As the feeding continued, the erections died down and Joey settled into a Stevie Wonder head-swaying mode while twidling his fingers. The bonobos looked at me curiously, waiting for the keeper to open the doors between cages so they could all sleep together. As I observed them, the infant, Luiza, reached out through the bars and I shook her little hand.