A bonobo demonstrated the ability to track imaginary objects in controlled tests, challenging the belief that imagination is uniquely human and hinting at deep evolutionary roots. In a set of ...

Chimpanzees and bonobos are among the closest relatives of humans. They share more than 98% of our DNA. Yet, these primates are remarkably different in their behaviour and ecology. The case studies of ...

Humans aren't the only species that can pretend, a study shows. Scientists offered a bonobo imaginary juice and grapes in a make-believe tea party, and the ape played along.

Children love to play pretend, holding imaginary tea parties, educating classrooms of teddies or running their own grocery ...

New study reveals our closest relatives share the cognitive roots of imagination and pretense. Remember childhood tea parties? The cups are empty, the teapot is dry, yet the air is thick with the ...

World Bonobo Day reminds us that one of our closest relatives lives by cooperation, not conflict, and now faces serious ...

Humans are not the only species to combine concepts to build more complex meaning, a new study found. Bonobo chimpanzees combine calls in a manner similar to how humans structure words to make phrases ...

Nothing brings a group of primates together, humans included, quite like a threat from outside. Bonobos are unique among primates because they do not kill other bonobos, even during conflicts with ...

Discover how an ape playing tea party teaches us humans are not the only beings with complex mental lives.

When people find out we study chimpanzees, they usually ask about their dark side. “You know chimpanzees kill each other, right?” or “Aren’t they the only animals besides humans that wage wars?” ...

Juvenile bonobo embraces a distressed companion during post-conflict consolation. Psychologists from Durham University, UK, observed the behaviour of 90 sanctuary-living apes to establish whether ...

A new study examining the muscular system of bonobos provides firsthand evidence that the rare great ape species may be more closely linked, anatomically, to human ancestors than common chimpanzees.