Evidence suggests chimps ‘bring it in’ like bonobos
28 Apr 2025
New research suggests chimpanzees and bonobos may not be markedly different from each other in their capacity for empathy.
The work, by a Durham university team led by Dr Jake Brooker which studied 90 of the ape species in two African sanctuaries, challenges assumptions about the degree of difference between humans’ two closest animal relatives.
While it is often supposed that bonobos are more empathic and less aggressive than chimps, the research concluded that both consoled peers in distress and that the greatest variation was within rather than between species.
Commented Brooker: "For a long time, bonobos have been thought of as the more empathic ape. However, we found that chimpanzees are just as likely to console one another as bonobos.
He added that this and other recent studies which compared the two apes in terms of aggression, social tolerance and sexuality demonstrated the degree of individual and social variation within species.
“Just like humans, bonobos and chimpanzees may flexibly show empathy depending on the individual, the group, and the surrounding social culture,” explained Brooker.
His team studied 40 bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 50 chimpanzees at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, logging 1,400 hours of observation.
Their research, published in Evolution and Human Behavior, concluded that overall, younger apes were more likely to offer consolation. However, among chimpanzees this was particularly marked amongst young males and also close social partners.
Within the great ape family, which also comprises humans, gorillas and orangutans, only the latter is not included within the Hominidae subfamily.
Humans, bonobos and chimpanzees are further grouped within the taxonomic tribe Hominanae which is divided into the genuses Homo (humans) and Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos).
Brooker’s Durham colleague, senior author of the study and professor Zanna Clay noted: “Finding these overlaps between our two close cousins suggests our last common ancestor likely showed these empathic capacities too.”
Pic: Guerrero De la Luz
