Food Sharing in Bonobos!

Comparisons between chimpanzees and humans have led to the hypothesis that only humans voluntarily share their own food with others [1,2,3,4]. However, it is hard to draw conclusions because the food-sharing preferences of our more tolerant relative, the bonobo (Pan paniscus), have never been studied experimentally. We gave unrelated bonobos the choice of either monopolizing food or actively sharing: we found that bonobos preferred to release a recipient from an adjacent room and feed together instead of eating all the food alone. Thus, food sharing in bonobos does not depend on kinship or harassment and suggests our own species' propensity for voluntary food sharing is not unique among the apes.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• bonobos
• food
• sharing

[bonobohandshake]

no way would chimps do this. we've run similar tests on a chimp sanctuary at Ngamba island. if the chimps didn't have to let anyone in to share the food - they didn't!!

[AdoreTheApes]

Bonobos don't belong behind bars!

[rachelcapt225]

Really wonderful. Sure would love to have one as a family member. Shut up animal rights groups. Get real, spend the same effort on humans and we would have a great world.

[sumipan9]

What was the success rate of the sharing?

[hoverflysmiles]

I wonder if this happens with other chimps/apes

[ShadowMutation]

Portal 2: Cooperative test Edition: Bonobos.....

[UrbaneGent]

would this happen with chimps?

[temsonx]

thats awesome! doin an essay on bonobos at the momment. wish we wer more like them.