Bonobos chimpanzee is a close relative of man
Posted on 09/08/2005 7:32:50 AM PDT by Mark Felton
Pygmy chimpanzees known as "jungle hippies" for resolving conflict through sex rather than fighting are hurtling towards extinction faster than any other primate, experts said yesterday.
Bonobos, gentle creatures found only in the remote war-torn forests of Congo, live in strictly matriarchal families and neither kill nor fight over territory.
Bonobos chimpanzee is a close relative of man
They also pair off for sex at the slightest hint of danger, stress or friction, earning them their hippy nicknames for "making love not war".
They are among man's closest relatives and face the prospect of being the first great ape to be wiped from the planet.
Claudine Andre, a conservationist, said yesterday: "All the great apes left in the wild face extinction, but it is the bonobos who look likely to be the first ones to go."
Mrs Andre, who runs an orphanage for the primates in Congo's capital Kinshasa, said: "Their habitat was right on the front line in the civil war, they have always been poached for bushmeat and, now that there is peace, you have loggers and mining companies starting operations again."
In 1980 there were an estimated 100,000 bonobos but 10 years later that had dropped to 10,000.
Since then Congo has been too dangerous for conservationists to research the species' numbers. Added to the destruction of their habitats from mining and logging, Congo's vast and inaccessible hinterland is still awash with gunmen.
They are falteringly being integrated into the nation's army, but as that process stalls, they are armed and hungry and patrolling bonobo territory.
Mrs Andre said: "These are animals which search for peace whenever they sense danger, usually through approaching another and having sexual intercourse.
"Their habitat has been occupied and the post-conflict period has been even harder. I fear for what the situation is now."
Ape experts from 23 countries are meeting this week in Kinshasa to plot ways to combat the effects on primates of logging, mining and bushmeat poaching.
Conservationists at the conference have warned that gorillas, chimpanzees, orang-utans and especially bonobos could be extinct within a human generation.
UNLESS - - there is meat involved...then you see nastiness the likes of which you will only see in Paris Hilton in a fight with Britney Spears over a photo op.
"They also pair off for sex at the slightest hint of danger, stress or friction"
These stupid monkeys should die off. If they're too stupid to run or fight, they are too stupid to live.
Despite Leftist delusions, it is self-evident that if humans were akin to bonobos, we would never have evolved to become the dominant species on the planet. Instead, we are just like chimpanzees: vicious, backstabbing, ingenious, and utterly ruthless with our enemies - but nice and cooperative sometimes with others that we like.
Great film, Planet of the Apes.
I can't wait to see how the world changes because some hippie chimps went extinct.
I'll bet it's gonna be something! Will anyone notice?
I hope you're being sarcastic.
"I can't wait to see how the world changes because some hippie chimps went extinct."
What!? The results will be catastrophic! Who will buy dope from monkey pot dealers? Who will buy "Monkey Sized" tie-dyed t-shirts? And I shudder to think of the sales of Chunky Monkey ice cream.
Hell, let's just kill off all useless wild animal species while we're at it. </sarcasm>
If they can't run or fight, but start gettin busy when in a dangerous situation, they are going to die off.
They haven't mastered fight or flight, they are an evolutionary cul de sac.
I'm just curious, but does a hippie monkey smell worse than a regular monkey?
Where, exactly, are they supposed to run to?
I suppose you think it was a good thing that the American bison was hunted to near-extinction? Do you think that any species which cannot survive human predation "deserves" to become extinct?
"Do you think that any species which cannot survive human predation "deserves" to become extinct?"
Well, not the delicious or valuable species anyway.
Funny and appropriate. There was more wisdom in the "Far Side" cartoons then ever appeared on the editorial pages of the newspapers that ran them
Pacifist chimps?
"NO WAR FOR BANANAS!"
Yeah, this new leader has connections with the big banana companies.
A primitive example favoring the argument to repeal the 19th. Amendment. Governor Kathleen Blanco, of Louisiana, being a more contemporary example. As well as Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Hillary Clinton. Just to name a few.
Modern progressives and liberal academicians believe man and ape are merely different species of animals, just flesh and blood put together in slightly different ways.
They do not understand the real difference between mankind and animals because their own mindsets are base and without understanding of the soul, or the Holy Spirit.
Men have souls, created by God, and have the capacity to accept the Holy Spirit which has been the greatest force to civilize mankind.
You can say that again.
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