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The Bonobo (Pan paniscus), sometimes called the Pygmy Chimpanzee, is one of the two species comprising the genus Pan; both members of that genus are technically "chimpanzees", though the term is frequently used to refer only to the other member of the genus, Pan troglodytes, the Common Chimpanzee. To avoid confusion, this article will use "chimpanzee" only to refer to both members of the genus.

Bonobos were discovered in 1928, by American anatomist Harold Coolidge , represented by a skull in the Tervuren museum in BelgiumFor alternate meanings, see Belgium (disambiguation). Belgian redirects here. For the horse breed commonly used as a draft horse, see Belgian. The Kingdom of Belgium ( Dutch: Belgi French: Belgique German: Belgien is a country in Western Europe, bordered that had been thought to be a juvenile chimpanzee's, though credit for the discovery went to the GermanThe Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the world's leading industrialized countries, located in the middle of the European Union. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic Sea, to the east Ernst Schwarz , who published the findings in 1929. They are distinguished by an upright gait, a matriarchalA matriarchy is a tradition (and by extension a form of government) in which community power lies with the eldest mother of a community. The word matriarchy derives from the latin words matri meaning mother and arch meaning chief or prime. It refers to th and egalitarianEgalitarianism is the moral doctrine that equality ought to prevail among some group along some dimension. One can best understand various types of egalitarianism by asking "Who is supposed to be equal?" and "In what respect are they supposed to be equal? culture, and the prominent role of sexual intercourse in their society.

Bonobos diverged from Common Chimpanzees after the last Common Chimpanzee ancestor diverged from its last common ancestor with humansHuman beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. Biologically, they are classified as Homo sapiens ( Latin for knowing man , a primate species of mammal with a highly developed brain. In spiritua; as no other species from the human line of the branching have survived, Bonobos and Common Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing approximately 98.4% of their DNADeoxyribonucleic acid DNA is a nucleic acid which carries genetic instructions for the biological development of all cellular forms of life and many viruses. DNA is sometimes referred to as the molecule of heredity as it is inherited and used to propagate with us. Bonobos passed the mirror-recognition test for self-awareness in 1994. They communicate through primarily vocal means, in a language that has not yet been deciphered; however, we do understand some of their natural hand gestures, such as their invitation to play. Two Bonobos, Kanzi, Panbanisha have been taught a vocabulary of about 400 words which they can type using a special keyboard of lexigrams (geometric symbols), and can respond to spoken sentences. Some, such as philosopher Peter Singer, argue that these results qualify them for the same rights as humans.

Bonobos live in a fusion-fission pattern: a tribe of about a hundred will split into small groups during the day while looking for food, and then come back together to sleep. Unlike Common Chimpanzees, who have been known to hunt monkeys, Bonobos are primarily herbivores, although they do eat insects and have been observed occasionally catching small mammals such as squirrels. Their primary food source is fruit.

Bonobos are found only in the Congo River basin (see Geography of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) of central Africa. They are an endangered species, due to both habitat loss and hunting for " bushmeat"; at most several thousand remain. This is part of a more general trend of ape extinction, which some denounce, based on their hominid status, as ape genocide.