<html> <body> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">popbitch wrote: >      Bonobos are, genetically, humankind's >      closest relative: they share 98.5 percent of our >      DNA. afaik, that's wrong. chimpanzees are our closest relative. that doesnt save them either (from even worse treatment by humans). <x-tab>        </x-tab>--ravi</blockquote> For Frans de Waal, man is not the only moral entity, as he made clear in his last book--Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals. The author has long been intrigued by chimpanzee politics and mores, and now he has turned his human heart and scientific mind to a species science has tended to celebrate solely for its sex drive. Bonobos may look like chimps, but they are actually even closer to us--far more upright, physically, for a start. Furthermore, where chimpanzees hunt, fight, and politic like mad, bonobos are peaceful, often ambisexual, and matriarchal. (Of course, hyenas are matriarchal too, but that's another story ...) De Waal's collaborator, Frans Lanting, has been photographing these gentle creatures for some years and augments the primatologist's explorations and interviews with hundreds of superb color shots. The penultimate picture is of bonobos crossing a road while schoolchildren stand watching, a short distance away. If, as the truism goes, all books about animal behavior are ultimately about us, this exploration of the bonobo may be a step in the right direction. Bonobos were not officially identified as a species separate from common chimpanzees until 1929. They are in fact much more than little chimpanzees. Humans and Bonobos share between 99 and 99.6% of their genetic makeup. Their lack of aggressiveness and excitability (quite unlike chimpanzees) is thought to perhaps be more similar to the first humans. There is also growing evidence that bonobos may be as different from chimpanzees as chimps are to gorillas. One can only imagine to what extent this will be realized as more is learned about the lives of bonobos. John Thornton (The above is clipped from a book review)</body> </html>