Springer Nature’s open-access academic journal "Science Reports" recently published a research paper on animal behavior, saying that researchers’ observations of wild bonobo populations indicate that two cubs may have been grown up by different communities. Female adoption.
The paper pointed out that the bonobo community consists of multiple males and females, and these orangutans sometimes communicate with each other.
The latest research results may be the first report of cross-group adoption of wild bonobos, or perhaps the first case of cross-group adoption of wild apes.
From April 2019 to March 2020, the corresponding author of the paper, Nahoko Tokuyama of Kyoto University, Japan, and colleagues observed 4 wild bonobo populations in the Luo Science Reserve in Wamba, Democratic Republic of Congo, and discovered Two cubs adopted by female bonobos from different communities.
The results of this study indicate that the adoption behavior of bonobos may not only occur when the adoptive mother is related to the biological mother by blood or social connection.
The author of the paper believes that potential adoption behavior may be derived from bonobo altruism, love for cubs, and high tolerance for individuals outside the community.
(Reporter Sun Zifa produced Zhou Jing video source Springer Nature)
Editor in charge: 【Luo Pan】