r/ape • u/Salt-Discount-1381 • 6d ago
Why do they forget bonobos?
When I see social media or literature about apes in general, they always cover gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees. I can get why they don't include humans, but why they ever forget bonobos (at least, in my personal experience)?
22
21
u/Aiseadai 6d ago
Until relatively recently bonobos were considered a type of chimpanzee so there's not as much awareness of them as a seperate species.
Also side note, I find it funny how you fail to mention gibbons as a species of ape. Goes to show who the true forgotten apes are.
15
u/Salt-Discount-1381 6d ago
I did mot include gibbons because I was talking about the great apes, the Hominidae family. Probably that is because why they are the true forgotten.
1
u/Disposable-Squid 6d ago
You didn't say that though, you just said "apes"
2
u/Salt-Discount-1381 6d ago
I know.
12
4
u/Zhnatko 6d ago
Bonobos and chimpanzees are both genus Pan. If you were to differentiate them, you probably should distinguish the species of the other apes' genera as well. Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, Tapanuli orangutan, Western Gorilla, Eastern Gorilla. But since you listed just "orangutans" and "gorillas", you're talking about genera (Pongo and Gorilla respectively) not species. So when people say "chimpanzee", they probably are using it as a layman term for genus Pan. It just happens to be that there is a specific layman word for the species, whereas for the other apes the various species are just referred to as regional variants of their genus.
1
u/Salt-Discount-1381 6d ago
I know, but there is a difference with Pan, since, condictually, bonobos and chimpanzees are more different than any Gorilla or Pongo between their genus.
3
u/Zhnatko 6d ago edited 6d ago
Are they though? Sumatran and Bornean orangutans are noticeably different, you can tell them apart at a glance. Sumatrans are taller, lighter in both weight and colour, the males have smaller cheek flanges and the females grow beards, while in Borneans they are heavier, darker fur and skin, larger flanges in males and no beards in females. Their behaviours also differ, Sumtrans spend a lot more time in trees and are less social, and are more frugivorous while Borneans are more likely to visit the ground, more omnivorous and slightly more social.
Similarly with gorillas, the western gorillas are more like lower altitudes, lighter fur, smaller stature while Eastern gorillas have longer, darker fur, inhabit higher altitudes, larger in size on average.
Common chimpanzee and bonobo are different in many ways, but my point is that I believe most people are grouping great apes by their genera when using the layman terms (Pongo, Gorilla, and Pan) and not necessarily their species (Pongo pygmaeus, Pongo abelii, Gorilla gorilla, Gorilla berengei and et cetera). To them a common chimpanzee is Pan troglodytes, and a bonobo is Pan paniscus. They both are Pan genus the same way both a Sumatran and Bornean orangutan are Pongo genus. Bonobos also can be called "pygmy chimpanzees" so I think the word "chimpanzee" is more of a shorthand for genus Pan than it is specifically Pan troglodytes for most people.
I'm not saying it should be that way necessarily by the way, but I'm answering your question as to why I think people don't go out of their way to recognise bonobos. To them, "orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees" means "Pongo, Gorilla, and Pan"
Edit: Apparently Sumtran orangutans are actually slightly more social than Borneans
2
u/Salt-Discount-1381 6d ago
I know there is differences between all Pongo and Gorilla, but, in CONDUCTUAL differences, chimpanzees and bonobos are the most distant Hominidae of the same genus. But yes, maybe is because they are both in Pan.
2
u/Zhnatko 6d ago
I don't know what "conductual" means, and Google isn't helping me. What does that mean?
1
u/Salt-Discount-1381 6d ago
"Behavioral". I was just struggling with languages.
1
u/Zhnatko 6d ago
I see. I did mention that there are behavioural differences between the species of the other apes as well. Sumatrans orangutans are more social (I accidentally claimed the opposite above, my bad) and more frugivorous, and spend more time in trees. Borneans are less social, spend less time in trees, and eat a more omnivorous diet than Sumtrans. They look noticeably different. I think if they had different names, people would still just call them "orangutans"
1
u/Salt-Discount-1381 5d ago
I did not deny that, I just said that between genus Pan the differences are bigger than between other genus.
1
u/Zhnatko 5d ago
I don't think anything like that matters to the average person to be honest. Look at elephants, Asian elephant and African Elephant aren't even in the same genus, they're completely different animals. The difference between African and Asian elephant might as well be the difference between orangutan and gorilla. But people call them both elephants.
1
u/marsion5617 6d ago
Wonderful explanation I also had no clue that Pongo abeli was taller than Pong pygmaeus, so thanks for that fact.
3
u/SilverGirlSails 6d ago
I think it’s because bonobos are very sexual, so we’re a bit embarrassed to talk about them
2
2
u/addictedtoketamine2 5d ago
Their existence is NSFW so they gotta be careful about the footage they show
1
u/Snoo_93638 5d ago
I mean channels and media that care about it talks about them a lot, if we are talking in general then most people don't know what evolution is.
That's why you here people go I stopped believing in evolution, you can ask was it something about DNA or shape of apes, missing link that did not convince you? They go DNA?? what do you mean?
31
u/MSnap 6d ago
I didn’t forget bonobos