bonobos

At an animal sanctuary in the Congo, young students are learning why the gentle, endangered apes known as bonobos should be seen as a national treasure.

Research on bonobos, one of our closest and gentlest relatives, may show how humans evolved to share and cooperate on a massive scale.

Duke anthropologist Brian Hare argues that humans evolved in a way that left us more cooperative and friendlier than our now extinct human cousins, like Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Bonobos are much more likely than common chimpanzees to share their food, a study suggests. But researchers who study sharing say human kids are more helpful and cooperative than either species.

Given a choice, bonobos tend to prefer people who act like jerks and dominate. That's very different than humans, who even as infants consistently prefer people who are cooperative and not mean.

A new study bolsters the theory that chimpanzees kill rivals as an adaptation to their natural environment and not as a result of human impact.