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Famously Horny Bonobo Apes Prove Platonic Male/Female Friendship Is Possible

In the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally, actor Billy Crystal asserted that men and women can never be friends – because “the sex part always gets in the way.” That may be true for humans, but it’s not the case for one of our closest relatives, the Central A

Bonobo apes at a zoo in Jacksonville, Florida (RobBixbyPhotography)
Bonobo apes at a zoo in Jacksonville, Florida (RobBixbyPhotography)


*NEWSBITES

LEIPZIG - Central African bonobos may be one step ahead of human beings when it comes to male/female relationships. Among apes, they're arguably the horniest of the lot. And yet they demonstrate an amazing capacity for genuine friendship between males and females.

According to a new study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, high-ranking dominant males in bonobo society often seek to develop non-sexual friendly relations with females. They show this by getting together with females they are not directly related to for mutual delousing sessions.

Even during courtship phases, male bonobos do not try and dominate females – girl power is the order of the day. The research also shows that these cross-gender friendships are particularly beneficial for male bonobos.

Bonobos are man's closest relation, and, like man, live in groups of males and females. And while humans too may use sex as a way of easing tensions, researcher Volker Sommer says that the sex lives of most humans pale in comparison to the repertoire and frequency of sexual relations among bonobos. Sex for bonobos is the currency that guarantees harmonious coexistence. The apes use their marked sexuality systematically to ensure peace and solve conflicts without violence.

The findings are outlined in a report recently published online in "Animal Behaviour" by researchers working with Gottfried Hohmann, Martin Surbeck and Tobias Dreschner of the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology.

For years, Hohmann has been leading a bonobo research project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There, in Salonga National Park south of the Congo River, the German researchers have been studying the behavior of a community of 33 to 35 apes.

Read the full article in German by Matthias Glaubrecht

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

Photo - RobBixbyPhotography

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FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

Palestinian Olive Trees Are Also Under Israeli Occupation — And That's Not A Joke

In the West Bank, a quieter form of oppression has been plaguing Palestinians for a long time. Their olive groves are surrounded by soldiers, and it's forbidden to harvest the olives – this economic and social violence has gotten far worse since Oct. 7.

A Palestinian woman holds olives in her hands

In a file photo, Um Ahmed, 74, collects olives in the village of Sarra on the southwest of the West Bank city of Nablus.

Mohammed Turabi/ZUMA
Francesca Mannocchi

HEBRON – It was after Friday prayers on October 13th of last year, and Zakaria al-Arda was walking along the road that crosses his property's hillside to return home – but he never made it.

A settler from Havat Ma'on — an outpost bordering Al-Tuwani that the United Nations International Law and Israeli law considers illegal — descended from the hill with his rifle in hand.

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After kicking al-Arda, who tried to defend himself, the settler shot him in the abdomen. The bullet pierced through his stomach, a few centimeters below the lungs. Since then, al-Arda has been in the hospital in intensive care. A video of those moments clearly shows that neither al-Arda nor the other worshippers leaving the mosque were carrying any weapons.

The victim's cousin, Hafez Hureini, still lives in the town of Al-Tuwani. He is a farmer, and their house on the slope of the town is surrounded by olive trees — and Israeli soldiers. On the pine tree at the edge of his property, settlers have planted an Israeli flag. Today, Hafez lives, like everyone else, as an occupied individual.

He cannot work in his greenhouse, cannot sow his fields, and cannot harvest the olives from his precious olive trees.

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