Pan paniscus

• Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are the closest living relatives to humans and display more human-like behavioral traits than common chimpanzees.
• Some biologists believe that neoteny — the retention of juvenile traits in adult animals — played an important role in the evolution of bonobos.
• In an experiment by the Great Apes Research Foundation, male Kanzi learned to understand about 3000 English words by ear and actively use more than 500 words through lexigrams.
• The bonobo, despite its childlike appearance, grows to be five times stronger than a human.
• The bonobo (Pan paniscus) is the only primate whose diet is almost identical to that of humans, making it possible to feed them the same food people eat.
• Bonobos constantly communicate with each other using a system of sounds that has not yet been deciphered, even while eating.
• Despite its name, the bonobo (Pan paniscus) is not smaller than the common chimpanzee in size, but differs from it in body build density.
• Bonobos lack aggression, cooperative hunting, and gestural language learning, although they easily manipulate objects in captivity.
• When bonobos find a new food source, their joy often leads to sexual activity, which reduces tension and helps maintain peaceful feeding.