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bonobo

bonobo

13 6.6
A small chimpanzee from central African forests that lives in peaceful groups
  • noun
  • /bəˈnoʊboʊ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : bonobo
  • The bonobo is a small, intelligent species of chimpanzee that thrives in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
  • bonobo and chimpanzee
  • bonobo society
  • female bonobos

You see, if I may, Bonobos are highly sexual apes.

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Examples

  • Despite its common name, the bonobo is not a pygmy form of chimpanzee.

    Academic text (1990)
  • The two primates that are most closely related to human beings are chimps and bonobos.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Or perhaps you prefer bonobo bands meeting for the first time in a forest clearing.

    Academic text (2011)
  • We decided, therefore, to attract the bonobos to a particular site by providing food for them.

    Academic text (1990)
  • An interactive map from the Bonobo Conservation Initiative identifies the locations of bonobo protected areas.

    Academic text (2014)
  • For example, unlike common chimpanzees, bonobos have never been observed to kill others of their kind.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Compared with common chimpanzees, bonobos seem to be more pacific and gregarious.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Of all the primates, bonobo monkeys... ...are the closest relatives to human beings... ...both genetically and socially.

  • According to some primate specialists, the bonobo may indeed closely resemble the common ancestor of humans and apes.

    Academic text (1990)
  • And so those great apes include gorillas and chimpanzees and bonobos and orangutans.

Synonyms

Pan paniscus
vsbonobo
  • Specialized
9.8

A large ape like a chimpanzee that lives in forests of the Congo Basin, often called the bonobo

is the everyday common name rather than the Latin label
pygmy chimpanzee
vsbonobo
6.8

A small ape from central African forests similar to a chimpanzee that lives in groups

is the standard common name rather than a descriptive phrase

Surface Forms

bonobo singular
bonobos plural

Etymology

Bonobo probably comes from the name of a town, Bolobo, on the Congo River where the animal was first noticed; the spelling changed over time. So the name points to its home in the Congo forests and helps you remember it is a kind of chimpanzee closely related to the common chimp.