Comments from groups of feral bonobos, reported in Scientific Reports, indicate that two babies may have been captured by adult females belonging to different social groups. The findings may represent the first report of cross-group adoption in wild bonobos, and perhaps also the first cases of cross-group adoption in wild onions.
Bonobos form social groups of many males and females that sometimes bond with each other over time. Nahoko Tokuyama and colleagues spotted four groups of wild bonobos between April 2019 and March 2020 at the Luo Scientific Reserve in Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The authors identified two babies they believe were taken by female bonobos from different social groups.
Flora, a 2.6-year-old woman, was being cared for by Marie, an 18-year-old woman with two young daughters. Ruby, a three-year-old woman, was cared for by Chio, a 52-57-year-old woman who made her own children emigrate to a different social group. Flora’s biological mother, Fula, visited Marie’s social group before Marie cared for Flora but she was not seen interacting with members of the group and it is not known if she is still alive. Ruby’s biological mother was not identified by the authors.
The authors believe that adoption occurred because Marie and Chio were observed providing maternity care for the children, including grooming, grooming, nursing and nesting with them, for periods. longer than 18 and 12 months, respectively. The authors did not observe any aggression between members of the social groups Marie and Chio towards Flora or Ruby. Examination of mitochondrial faecal DNA samples showed that the mothers and caregivers were not related to the mother.
The findings indicate that adoption in bonobos may only involve cases where there are relationship or pre-existing social relationships between adoptive and biological mothers. The authors suggest that the potential adoptions may be led by bonobos altruism, strong attraction to infants and high tolerance towards individuals outside the social group. themselves.
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Article information
Two wild female bonobos captured babies from a different social group at Wamba
DOI:
10.1038 / s41598-021-83667-2
Corresponding author:
Nahoko Tokuyama
Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
Email: [email protected]
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