secret shame
despite the name of this blog (and the resulting nicknames it has earned me), i was unable to provide a correct answer to the question "name the three species commonly known as the 'Great Apes'" during this month's Dr. Fact's Night of 50 Questions. the answer is gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees. we left off the chimps in favor of bonobos. and after reading this description of them, can you blame us?
The species is best characterized as female-centered and egalitarian and as one that substitutes sex for aggression. Whereas in most other species sexual behavior is a fairly distinct category, in the bonobo it is part and parcel of social relations--and not just between males and females. Bonobos engage in sex in virtually every partner combination (although such contact among close family members may be suppressed). And sexual interactions occur more often among bonobos than among other primates. Despite the frequency of sex, the bonobo's rate of reproduction in the wild is about the same as that of the chimpanzee. A female gives birth to a single infant at intervals of between five and six years. So bonobos share at least one very important characteristic with our own species, namely, a partial separation between sex and reproduction.
sounds pretty Great to me!
Comments
i thought Apes was a self-appelation and not something you earned. if it was truly earned, what requirements were needed?
Posted by: crispin | September 16, 2004 04:22 PM
opposable thumbs and the lack of a prehensile tail.
Posted by: jamie | September 16, 2004 04:25 PM
monday night i tried to think of the name of the other ape. turns out it's the gibbon (as i recalled tuesday afternoon). along with siamang, they are considered "lesser apes." who knew?
http://www.szgdocent.org/pp/p-gibbon.htm
check out this page for more clarification/confusion about apes:
http://www.szgdocent.org/pp/p-apes.htm
looks like bonobos are counted as great apes.
this concludes today's science lesson.
Posted by: marc | September 16, 2004 05:17 PM
yeah, I was gonna say that bonobos are great apes--there are four species, not three. Who writes the questions? S/he needs a fact checker :)
Posted by: Claire | September 16, 2004 07:30 PM
I thought bonobos were a subgroup of chimpanzees, not a distinct species. The link you provided touches on this confusion, so maybe it's one of those matters of enough or recent enough scientific dispute that your answer man had outdated info. A google search on "great apes" turned up a U.N. Environment Program called the Great Apes Survival Project that lists four great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. You should beat your chest in protest! The quizmaster owes you a point! Or maybe you could settle your dispute in the manner of the bonobos--by asking him/her to grant you a sexual favor.
Posted by: David | September 16, 2004 09:50 PM
Animal Planet did a whole multi-hour doc on the FOUR Great Apes. I think a whole tv channel devoted to ANIMALS can't be wrong and should not be doubted. You were ROBBED.
:)
Posted by: Claire | September 17, 2004 11:32 AM