New York (AP) – Female bonobos find strength in numbers, which come together to defend men in nature, according to a new study.
Together with the chimpanzees, the bonobos are among the closest relatives of humans. Scientists have a great wonder why bonobos live in societies generally dominated by women, since males are physically larger and more stronger.
Three decades of observations in the Congo, the only place that the endangered bonobos are found in nature, support the idea of a sister hood where female bonobos come together to affirm their power.
These groups of girls expelled the male bonobos of the trees, ensuring food for themselves, and the women who grouped more were classified higher on the social scale of their community, the researchers found.
“It’s very clear that you don’t want to exceed a masculine Bonobo,” said study author Martin Surbeck from Harvard University.
The findings were published Thorsday in the Journal Communications Biology.
The female bonobos numbers seem to change the course against the physical force of a man, Surbeck said. It is one of the strange times that such strategy has allowed females to come out at the top of the animal kingdom. Spotted hyenas find the power in groups similar.
The female bonobos were linked even when they had no nearby ties, leaning together against men and consolidating their social position. The observations show how female bonobos work together to protect themselves from male violence, said biological anthropologist Laura Lewis with the University of California, Berkeley.
The findings support “the idea that humans and our ancestors have probably used coalitions to build and maintain power for millions of years,” said Lewis, who did not participate in the investigation, in an email.
With post cables.
