Bonobo Chimpanzee Natural History Illustrations and Images

Summary: Bonobo chimpanzee natural history illustrations and images follow close human relatives whose feet, spinal cord, thighs and weight favor two-footed walks.

social gathering of six Bonobo chimpanzees (Pan paniscus); San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, San Diego, Southern California; Friday, March 3, 2006: William H. Calvin (Wcalvin) at English Wikipedia, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Bonobo chimpanzee natural history illustrations and images activate aesthetic aspects of distribution ranges, life cycles and physical appearances of humankind's closest relative, whose feet, spinal cord, thighs and weight assist two-footed ambulation.

Pygmy, gracile, dwarf and Bonobo chimpanzees bear their common names by slender builds and the misspelled Bolobo, Congolese town of the first specimens in the 1920s. They carry the scientific name Pan paniscus (from the Greek πᾶν, pán, "every [one delights in the god Pan]" and Latin Pāniscus, "small [rural deity] Pan"). Bonobo chimps, described in 1929 by Ernst Schwarz (Dec. 1, 1889-Sept. 23, 1962), rarely delight, unlike common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) relatives, menagerie, park and zoo visitors.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates 50,000 endangered Bonobo chimps within the Democratic Republic of Congo's northerly Congo River, southwesterly Sankuru-Kasai and easterly Lualaka.

Bonobo chimpanzees form mixed-age, mixed-gender, non-aggressive, non-competitive communities whose 10 to 150 members fracture into smaller, temporary subgroups for casual-, opposite-, same-sex mating; foraging; and nest-building.

Bonobo chimp females garner physically mature 27.6- to 29.92-inch (70- to 76-centimeter) nose-rump lengths on all fours, 66.14-pound (30-kilogram) average weights and 45.28-inch (115-centimeter) standing heights. They head into sexual maturity as nine-year-olds and physical maturity as 13- to 14-year-olds and have one chimp every four to five years over 40-year lifespans. Females, with mother-offspring interactions beyond 240-day gestations and March through May birthing seasons, and males respectively inhabit communities for 6- to 13-year intervals and birth communities.

Male Bonobo chimpanzee natural history illustrations juggle 74.96- to 132.28-pound (34- to 60-kilogram), 28.74- to 32.68-inch (73- to 83-centimeter) nose-rump lengths and 45.28-inch (115-centimeter) standing heights.

Females and males know Bonobo chimp physiques of the same signature prominent brow ridges above the eyes; small ears; wide nostrils; small heads; and thin necks.

Bonobo chimp physiques link pink lips; black faces; black, parted hair that lies sideways and never looks balding; black coats graying with age; and white-tufted tails. Long-fingered longer arms than long-toed long legs, mobile shoulder joints and slim upper bodies move knuckle-gaiting Bonobo chimps over forest floors and higher, upper tree branches. They need daily and nightly aerial nests from which to navigate canopy branches and forest floors and nourish themselves on duikers (antelopes), flying squirrels and monkeys.

Bonobo chimpanzee natural history illustrations offer as food sources bark, caterpillars, earthworms, eggs, flowers, fruits, fungi, honey, insects, leaves, nuts, pith, seeds, stems, termites and truffles.

A series of community-specific, overlapping 7.72- to 23.17-square-mile (20- to 60-square-kilometer) home-range territories prevail in humid, mixed-species primary and secondary lowland floodland, rainforest and savannah-forest mosaics.

Average monthly temperatures between 68 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (20 and 30 degrees Celsius) and 62.99- to 78.74-inch (1,600- to 2,000-millimeter) annual rainfall qualify as Bonobo-friendly. Bonobo chimps realize 1.24-mile (2-kilometer) average daily travel ranges and require foraging and nesting branches at 82.02- to 131.23-foot (25- to 40-meter) distances above forest floors. The International Union for Conservation of Nature suggests endangered habitats for bushmeat-hunted Bonobo chimp populations at 984.25- to 2,296.59-foot (300- to 700-meter) altitudes above sea level.

Bonobo chimpanzee natural history illustrations treat Bonobo chimpanzees with genomes 99 percent in common with humankind's; high-pitched vocalizations; individualized facial features; and stream-wading, not swimming, capabilities.

"Map of the geographic distribution of bonobos (Pan paniscus) within the African continent," with Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection and World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84): Alphathon derivative work of blank Africa map by Eric Gaba (Wikimedia Commons user: Sting), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

social gathering of six Bonobo chimpanzees (Pan paniscus); San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, San Diego, Southern California; Friday, March 3, 2006: William H. Calvin (Wcalvin) at English Wikipedia, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:6_bonobos_WHCalvin_IMG_1341.jpg

"Map of the geographic distribution of bonobos (Pan paniscus) within the African continent," with Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection and World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84): Alphathon derivative work of blank Africa map by Eric Gaba (Wikimedia Commons user: Sting), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bonobo_distribution.svg

For further information:

Cawton Lang, K.A. 1 December 2010. "Primate Factsheets: Bonobo (Pan paniscus) Behavior." Primate Info Net > About the Primates.
Available @ http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/bonobo/behav

Schwarz, Ernst. 1 April 1929. "Das Vorkommen des Schimpansen auf den linken Kongo-Ufer." Revue de zoologie et de botanique africaines, vol. XVI: 425-426.
Available @ http://www.metafro.be/primates/English_translation_of_Schwarz.pdf

Shumaker, Robert W. "Bonobo: Pan paniscus." In: Michael G. Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist and Melissa C. McDade (eds.). Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 14, Mammals III: 239-240. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.