Transcript Excerpt:
AC Narrator: Bonobos are unique among great apes because they are not dominated by males. And according to Brian Hare, a Duke University evolutionary anthropologist who studies them at Lola, it’s the females who run the show.
Brian
Hare: Here if you try to be in – an alpha male, you will be, as the Congolese
say, “corrected” by the females.
Anderson
Cooper: Not just by one female, but by a sort of alliance of females?
Brian
Hare: That’s right. That’s right. And one of the – they – they – bonobos really
violate a rule of nature where usually if you’re bigger, you're going to be
dominant. But here, females are actually smaller. But they’re still not
dominated by males because they work together.
AC Narrator:
What’s more, bonobos have never been observed to kill each other. The same can’t
be said of chimpanzees, or of humans for that matter.
Brian
Hare: Bonobos, on the other hand, they don’t really have that darker side. So
that’s where they could really help us is how could it be that a species that
has a brain a third of the size of ours can do something that with all our
technological prowess we can’t accomplish? Which is to not kill each other.
AC Narrator:
The answer might be found in bonobos’ favorite pastime. These apes have more
sex, more often, in more ways than any other primate on the planet. Their
sexual contact is so frequent, Brian Hare refers to it as the “Bonobo Handshake”...
Anderson
Cooper: It’s not that they want to procreate or have kids, it’s not that they
even find each other attractive?
Brian
Hare: No.
Anderson
Cooper: It’s – it’s just –
Brian
Hare: No, it’s a negotiation.
AC
Narrator: And it’s hardly surprising that many of these negotiations take place
over food.
Anderson
Cooper: Chimpanzees will fight each other over food.
Brian
Hare: That’s right. They—
Anderson
Cooper: Bonobos won’t necessarily fight each other—
Brian
Hare: That’s right. So they – so, basically, chimpanzees get primed for
competition, testosterone increases. Bonobos, they get really stressed out. And
if they feel like they’re not going to be able to share, they get really
anxious, and then that drives them to want to be reassured. And they then
happen to have a bonobo handshake to feel better.
Anderson
Cooper: And males do that with females, males will do that with males, females
will do that with females, doesn’t matter, even the ages?
Brian
Hare: Any combination. Any age.
