A comprehensive atlas of the bonobo gut bacteriome and its associated host and exposome factors.

In great apes, the gut bacteriome shapes key physiological functions and is influenced by both the exposome and the host. Yet, isolating these independent contributions remains challenging. We sequenced 644 fecal samples from 212 wild and zoo-housed bonobos (Pan paniscus), matched with detailed data collection on host and exposome factors.

Drivers of female power in bonobos.

In mammals, female dominance over males is a rare phenomenon. However, recent findings indicate that even in species with sexual dimorphism biased towards males, females sometimes occupy high status. Here we test three main hypotheses explaining intersexual power relationships, namely the self-reinforcing effects of winning and losing conflicts, the strength of mate competition, and female coalition formation.

Self-Medication in Humans () and Bonobos () in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In this article I engage with the complex interplay of primates, plants and parasites. We learn about the ethnobotanical records of an indigenous population and their medicinal plants, and get a glimpse into the interplay of man and ape in a jointly used ecosystem. I combine my long-term research on free-living bonobos, a species endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with historical work.

Strontium isoscape of sub-Saharan Africa allows tracing origins of victims of the transatlantic slave trade.

Strontium isotope (Sr/Sr) analysis with reference to strontium isotope landscapes (Sr isoscapes) allows reconstructing mobility and migration in archaeology, ecology, and forensics. However, despite the vast potential of research involving Sr/Sr analysis particularly in Africa, Sr isoscapes remain unavailable for the largest parts of the continent. Here, we measure the Sr/Sr ratios in 778 environmental samples from 24 African countries and combine this data with published data to model a bioavailable Sr isoscape for sub-Saharan Africa using random forest regression.

The sociality of sleep in animal groups.

Group-living animals sleep together, yet most research treats sleep as an individual process. Here, we argue that social interactions during the sleep period contribute in important, but largely overlooked, ways to animal groups' social dynamics, while patterns of social interaction and the structure of social connections within animal groups play important, but poorly understood, roles in shaping sleep behavior. Leveraging field-appropriate methods, such as direct and video-based observation, and increasingly common on-animal motion sensors (e.

Preliminary isotopic assessment of weaning in bonobos shows evidence for extended nursing, sibling competition and invested first-time mothers.

Although considered a hallmark in early ontogeny, weaning from breastmilk is difficult to monitor in wild primates and weaning ages remain unknown for wild bonobos (Pan Paniscus). Here, we calculated inter-birth intervals from demographic data and measured the isotopic offsets (ΔN and ΔC) between mother (n = 17) and offspring (n = 28) fecal sample pairs (n = 131, total n = 246) in the LuiKotale bonobos to assess nutritional weaning for the first time. We tested the effects of infant age, female parity, and sibling competition on ΔN and ΔC values.

Water scooping: tool use by a wild bonobo (Pan paniscus) at LuiKotale, a case report.

Tool use diversity is often considered to differentiate our two closest living relatives: the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and the bonobo (P. paniscus). Chimpanzees appear to have the largest repertoire of tools amongst nonhuman primates, and in this species, many forms of tool use enhance food and water acquisition.

Modulation of cell-mediated immunity during pregnancy in wild bonobos.

During pregnancy, the mammalian immune system must simultaneously protect against pathogens while being accommodating to the foreign fetal tissues. Our current understanding of this immune modulation derives predominantly from industrialized human populations and laboratory animals. However, their environments differ considerably from the pathogen-rich, resource-scarce environments in which pregnancy and the immune system co-evolved.

Evolutionary Insight into the Association between New Jersey Polyomavirus and Humans.

Advances in viral discovery techniques have led to the identification of numerous novel viruses in human samples. However, the low prevalence of certain viruses in humans raises doubts about their association with our species. To ascertain the authenticity of a virus as a genuine human-infecting agent, it can be useful to investigate the diversification of its lineage within hominines, the group encompassing humans and African great apes.

Neopterin Levels in Bonobos Vary Seasonally and Reflect Symptomatic Respiratory Infections.

As environmental changes exacerbate the threat coming from infectious diseases in wild mammal species, monitoring their health and gaining a better understanding of the immune functioning at the species level have become critically important. Neopterin is a biomarker of cell-mediated immune responses to intracellular infections. We investigated the variation of urinary neopterin (uNeo) levels of wild, habituated bonobos (Pan paniscus) in relation to individual and environmental factors.

Golden-bellied mangabeys (Cercocebus chrysogaster) exhibit a larger home range and longer travel distances than those of bonobos (Pan paniscus) at LuiKotale, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Primate ranging behavior is associated with numerous social and ecological correlates. Interspecific comparisons of ranging behavior can therefore provide insight into the socio-ecological conditions that characterize a species' niche within its community. We provide the first description of ranging behavior in golden-bellied mangabeys (Cercocebus chrysogaster), using sympatric bonobos (Pan paniscus) as a comparison.

Assessing the effects of survey-inherent disturbance on primate detectability: Recommendations for line transect distance sampling.

Habitat destruction and over-hunting are increasingly threatening the arboreal primates of Central Africa. To establish effective conservation strategies, accurate assessments of primate density, abundance, and spatial distribution are required. To date, the method of choice for primate density estimation is line transect distance sampling.

Transition to siblinghood causes a substantial and long-lasting increase in urinary cortisol levels in wild bonobos.

In animals with slow ontogeny and long-term maternal investment, immatures are likely to experience the birth of a younger sibling before reaching maturity. In these species, the birth of a sibling marks a major event in an offspring's early life as the older siblings experience a decrease in maternal support. The transition to siblinghood (TTS) is often considered to be stressful for the older offspring, but physiological evidence is lacking.

Attractiveness of female sexual signaling predicts differences in female grouping patterns between bonobos and chimpanzees.

Here we show that sexual signaling affects patterns of female spatial association differently in chimpanzees and bonobos, indicating its relevance in shaping the respective social systems. Generally, spatial association between females often mirrors patterns and strength of social relationships and cooperation within groups. While testing for proposed differences in female-female associations underlying female coalition formation in the species of the genus Pan, we find only limited evidence for a higher female-female gregariousness in bonobos.

What fecal analyses reveal about Manniophyton fulvum consumption in LuiKotale bonobos (Pan paniscus): A medicinal plant revisited.

Observations of animals in the wild can result in the discovery of plants for human medicinal purposes. In this context, our closest relatives, the great apes, are of particular interest. The Euphorbiaceae Manniophyton fulvum possesses both phytochemical and biomechanical properties.

Dominance style is a key predictor of vocal use and evolution across nonhuman primates.

Animal communication has long been thought to be subject to pressures and constraints associated with social relationships. However, our understanding of how the nature and quality of social relationships relates to the use and evolution of communication is limited by a lack of directly comparable methods across multiple levels of analysis. Here, we analysed observational data from 111 wild groups belonging to 26 non-human primate species, to test how vocal communication relates to dominance style (the strictness with which a dominance hierarchy is enforced, ranging from 'despotic' to 'tolerant').

In vivo deciduous dental eruption in LuiKotale bonobos and Gombe chimpanzees.

Objectives: Existing data on bonobo and chimpanzee dental eruption timing are derived predominantly from captive individuals or deceased wild individuals. However, recent advances in noninvasive photographic monitoring of living, wild apes have enabled researchers to characterize dental eruption in relatively healthy individuals under naturalistic conditions. At present, such data are available for only one population of wild chimpanzees.

No time to rest: How the effects of climate change on nest decay threaten the conservation of apes in the wild.

Since 1994, IUCN Red List assessments apply globally acknowledged standards to assess species distribution, abundance and trends. The extinction risk of a species has a major impact on conservation science and international funding mechanisms. Great ape species are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered.

First report of a leopard (Panthera pardus)-bonobo (Pan paniscus) encounter at the LuiKotale study site, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Predation is a major cause of mortality in non-human primates, and considered a selective force in the evolution of primate societies. Although larger body size is considered as protection against predation, evidence for predation on great apes by carnivores comes from chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), and orangutans (Pongo spp.).

Discovery of Novel Herpes Simplexviruses in Wild Gorillas, Bonobos, and Chimpanzees Supports Zoonotic Origin of HSV-2.

Viruses closely related to human pathogens can reveal the origins of human infectious diseases. Human herpes simplexvirus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) are hypothesized to have arisen via host-virus codivergence and cross-species transmission. We report the discovery of novel herpes simplexviruses during a large-scale screening of fecal samples from wild gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees.

Gregariousness, foraging effort, and affiliative interactions in lactating bonobos and chimpanzees.

Fission-fusion dynamics have evolved in a broad range of animal taxa and are thought to allow individuals to mitigate feeding competition. While this is the principal benefit of fission-fusion, few studies have evaluated its costs. We compared gregariousness, foraging budgets, and social budgets between lactating bonobos and chimpanzees from wild populations to evaluate potential costs.

Fermented food consumption in wild nonhuman primates and its ecological drivers.

Objectives: Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that climate, socioecological traits, and habitat patch size would influence the occurrence of this behavior due to effects on the environmental prevalence of late-stage fermented foods, the ability of primates to detect them, and potential nutritional benefits.

Patterns of urinary cortisol levels during ontogeny appear population specific rather than species specific in wild chimpanzees and bonobos.

Compared with most mammals, postnatal development in great apes is protracted, presenting both an extended period of phenotypic plasticity to environmental conditions and the potential for sustained mother-offspring and/or sibling conflict over resources. Comparisons of cortisol levels during ontogeny can reveal physiological plasticity to species or population specific socioecological factors and in turn how these factors might ameliorate or exaggerate mother-offspring and sibling conflict. Here, we examine developmental patterns of cortisol levels in two wild chimpanzee populations (Budongo and Taï), with two and three communities each, and one wild bonobo population (LuiKotale), with two communities.

Information transfer efficiency differs in wild chimpanzees and bonobos, but not social cognition.

Several theories have been generated to understand the socio-cognitive mechanisms underlying the unique cooperative abilities of humans. The 'interdependence hypothesis' posits first, that the cognitive dimension of human cooperation evolved in contexts when several individuals needed to act together to achieve a common goal, like when hunting large prey. Second, the more interdependent individuals are, the more likely they are to provide services to conspecifics in other contexts.

Wild bonobo and chimpanzee females exhibit broadly similar patterns of behavioral maturation but some evidence for divergence.

Objectives: Primates exhibit variation in rates of growth and development. Variation in female growth and development across ape species appears to be explained by the Ecological Risk Aversion Hypothesis (ERAH). Indeed, existing data on variation in somatic growth and reproductive maturation between humans' closest living ape relatives, bonobos and chimpanzees, appear to be consistent with this hypothesis.