Bonobos join forces to outdo chimps
- From: "rinocerul" <exnihil@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 12 Apr 2007 17:26:19 -0700
Bonobos join forces to outdo chimps
* 07 April 2007
* From New Scientist
WE KNOW them as the most highly sexed of all the apes. Now it appears
that the easy-going social life enjoyed by bonobos makes them better
at cooperating than their more aggressive chimp cousins.
Brian Hare of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues tested how well chimps and bonobos
coped with challenging social situations. Bonobos, they found, were
more likely to share a plate of food, using play or sex to defuse
social tensions. In contrast, chimps' more limited social skills meant
one individual was more likely to take all the food.
The researchers gave pairs of each species a task that required them
to work together to retrieve a food reward that neither could reach
alone. When the food was easily shared, both species quickly learned
to do this. But when the food was in a single bowl - making it easy to
monopolise - chimps were less willing to work together (Current
Biology, vol 17, p 619).
"It's so simple and obvious that no one's ever demonstrated it," says
Hare. "You can't cooperate if you can't share the spoils." The
flexibility that allows humans to work together evolved more from
social adeptness than high-powered reasoning, he suggests.
.
- Prev by Date: Tyrannosaurus rex fossil gives up precious protein
- Next by Date: Re: Blegirea globaluormingului
- Previous by thread: Tyrannosaurus rex fossil gives up precious protein
- Next by thread: Ecstasy really does unleash the love hormone
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
