Īlong with the common chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest extant relative to humans. Because of political instability in the region, and the general timidity of bonobos, there has been relatively little field work done observing the species in its natural habitat.Īccording to studies published in 2017 by researchers at The George Washington University, the ancestors of the genus Pan split from the human line about 8 million years ago moreover, bonobos split from the common chimpanzee line about 2 million years ago. The bonobo inhabits primary and secondary forest, including seasonally inundated swamp forest. The species is predominantly frugivorous, compared to the often highly omnivorous diets and hunting of small monkeys, duiker and other antelope exhibited by common chimpanzees. The bonobo is found in a 500,000 km 2 (190,000 sq mi) area within the Congo Basin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Central Africa. Some individuals have sparser, thin hair over parts of their bodies. īonobos are distinguished from common chimpanzees by relatively long limbs, pinker lips, a darker face, a tail-tuft through adulthood, and parted, longer hair on its head. Taxonomically, the members of the chimpanzee/bonobo subtribe Panina-composed entirely by the genus Pan-are collectively termed panins. While bonobos are, today, recognized as a distinct species in their own right, they were initially thought to be a subspecies of Pan troglodytes, due to the physical similarities between the two species. The bonobo ( / b ə ˈ n oʊ b oʊ, ˈ b ɒ n ə b oʊ/ Pan paniscus), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee (less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee), is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan (the other being the common chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes).

Baby chimpanzee monkey