A lot of human society requires what’s called a “theory of mind"—the ability to infer the mental state of another person and adjust our actions based on what we expect they know and are thinking. We ...

Humans are adept combiners. As it turns out, so, too, are bonobos. According to a new study in Science, bonobos can combine their calls a lot like humans can, indicating that a hallmark of human ...

Chimpanzees and bonobos are among the closest relatives of humans. They share more than 98% of our DNA. Yet, these primates ...

If you liked this story, share it with other people. Few apes have done more to unsettle human certainties than Kanzi the bonobo. He wasn’t the first nonhuman primate to use symbols to communicate, ...

We humans concoct never-before-heard sentences with ease, embedding phrases within phrases to express the wildest ideas we can dream up (“the purple pangolin that waltzed across the ballroom had a ...

Bonobos, one of humanity’s closest relatives, appear to string together vocal calls in ways that mirror a key feature of the human language, a new study carried out in the forests of the Democratic ...

This research received funds from the Swiss National Science Foundation and Harvard University. Humans can effortlessly talk about an infinite number of topics, from neuroscience to pink elephants, by ...

Bonobos – our closest living relatives – create complex and meaningful combinations of calls resembling the word combinations of humans. This study, conducted by researchers at the University of ...

A few captive bonobos recently faced a seemingly simple task: locate a tasty snack hidden under one of three cups. Because bonobos are brainiacs, pinpointing the cup with the treat should have been no ...

Chimpanzees and bonobos are often thought to reflect two different sides of human nature—the conflict-ready chimpanzee versus the peaceful bonobo—but a new study publishing April 12 in the journal ...

If you’ve heard the common phrase, “Bonobos make love, not war,” you might wonder about the context behind this statement. Essentially, bonobos use sexual activity as a form of conflict resolution.