Bonobos » Twycross Zoo

05-12-2007

I believe fighting between the adult males!

14-02-2008

Any news on any pregnancies or births in the 2 groups? It seems such a pity to seperate them into two seperate groups because one big group of 11 all together would be a great exhibit. Other then the 2 that were handraised have any other bonobos born at Twycross left to join other groups?

15-02-2008

I don't believe so.

22-02-2008

The groups were separated when Ke-ke reached Sexual maturity to stop him trying to mate with his mum Diatou. There were plans to move him somewhere then bring the groups back together but nothing seems to be happening yet.
Last Summer Daitou became pregnant again and should be due any time now, however she was not coping well with the pregnancy and kept bleeding a lot at night. There were some conecrns that she might lose the baby but I dont know whats happened since then.... can anyone fill me in?

15-03-2008

Very late reply I know but unfortunately Diatou "lost" the baby, apparently it never implanted properly and instead she had some kind of growth that could have turned cancerous and killed her, luckily health checks showed this and she was able to expel it and is now pregnant again

15-03-2008

Good to learn Diatou is pregnant once again and the cancerous tissue did not end her! It seems an unexplored opportunity though ...... to me Any chance that more bonobo females in any of the 2 groups might breed?

Can someone fill us in on which bonobos are in either group (names, sex and dates of birth)?

Obligingly,

Jelle

15-03-2008

The groups have not changed from my post on this subject in december last year.

16-03-2008

^^ Yes the groups where shuffled around after last Summer following the problems Keke was having as per your list.

Left hand group
Diatou (F) - 21/10/77 Wilhelma Zoo
Kichele (F) - 19/04/89 Wilhelma Zoo
Cheeka (F) - 18/03/96 Frankfurt Zoo
Kakowet II (M) - 07/06/80 San Diego Zoo
Luo (M - Son of Diatou) - 01/12/02 Twycross Zoo
Gemena (F - Daughter of Cheeka) - 07/11/05 Twycross Zoo

Right hand group
Banya (F) - 01/02/90 Cologne Zoo
Maringa (F) - 05/05/98 Berlin Zoo
Jasongo (M) - 02/09/90 Wuppertal Zoo
Keke (M) - 02/01/94 Twycross Zoo
Bokela (F - Daughter of Banya) - 14/10/03 Twycross Zoo

I don't have all their birthdates to hand at the moment but believe they have been listed on here somewhere already.

Jasongo has been making a lot of noise recently as he wants to mate and after much persuasion Maringa has given in several times so looks like she should be the next to fall pregnant (fingers crossed). I am not aware of any matings with Banya but as Bokela still seems to be very close (following her around and attempting to suckle at 4.5 years old) this may mean that she won't become pregnant for a while yet (speculation)

As for the other group, the females have now taken to picking on poor Kakowet - he was subject to a minor attack the other day leaving him with a minor wound on his foot so this may impact on matings, although as Diatou is pregnant and Cheeka is still caring for Gemena (only 18-24 months old) the only one left is Kichele, it would be nice if her and Kakowet would mate but she seems to be more interested in food and her toy car most of the time (she is definately the one I know least about as she seems to blend in to the background in my eyes & my behaviour study is focused on the other group).

16-03-2008

Do your studies suggest that perhaps Kakowet II is losing out in the dominance stakes? Can you tell us how this works in bonobos? I used to think that bonobos de-antagonise all conflicts with frequent back-to-back matings?

What age is Kakowet II? Do you think the above described behaviour is an indicator for a teamleader change?

I read earlier that 2 handreared offspring were taken out of their breeding group and sent on to Stuttgart nursery? Judging by the current family groupings and youngsters ... is it fair to assume Twycross has at least 2 reproducing bonobo groups in which the females raise their own offspring successfully?

16-03-2008

In Bonobo society it is the females that are dominant, not the males - this is maintained primarily by increased social contact between females and the formation of "alliances", Diatou is the dominant animal in the group and with Kichele/Cheeka they form a 3 to 1 ratio that leaves Kakowet firmly at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy, generally speaking if one of the three has an issue then they all do and they will gang up.

Reconciliation is regularly carried out through sexualy contact (not neccessarily matings) and such contact has a number of roles in Bonobo society, when animals are excited or come accross a novel object for example, some form of sexual contact will almost certainly follow - they are by far the most sexually adventurous animal on the planet, every possible imaginable position/combination has been observed in bonobos, back to back, "doggy", face to face, oral, masturbation, contacts between male/female, m/m, f/f and adolescent animals with others in the group (of both genders including parents) have been witnessed. It is important to remember though that these contacts have an important social role and rarely "finish" in the traditional way, indeed many contacts would be incapable of creating offspring regardless.

Kakowet II is the oldest male in the group although I don't have his exact age to hand I can easily check tomorrow for you.

Yes definately, currently Cheeka/Gemena, Banya/Bokela, Diatou/Luo have all been reared successfully without human intervention to the best of my knowledge and all seem to be be caring and capable mothers.

On a side note I have discovered this site: Ape List Pongoland - Bonobo that details a femal Bonobo named Yasa that is the offsprinf of Kakowet II and Kichele that was moved to Leipzig zoo in 2004, so it seems that Kichele also has a history of breeding successfully although I do not know if this animal was hand reared or why it was moved to Leipzig.

16-03-2008

MexPirate,

Thanks for the explanatory notes. Bonobo society certainly is very interesting. I believe there is a fine book on the market detailing bonobo biology (along similar lines as Frans de Waal's chimpanzee politics, but I am sure you know all about that).

Re: Kakowet II. Allright so the females are the dominant force. So how does that work breedingwise. What determines who mates with whom? You are suggesting other forces or bonobo perceptions are at work here that determine which male is the chosen on?

I assume that in bonobo groups the usual association is several adult males with a troupe of adult females and their youngsters. The males form loose alliances on the basis that the females are the deciding factor in every aspect of their society and their behaviour.

Coming back to Twycross's group 1 with Kakowet II; must we conclude from your remarks that perhaps Kakowet II's group is a little imbalanced with just the 1 adult male?

17-03-2008

Believe the book you are reffering to is "Bonobo - The forgotten Ape" by Franz De Waal and Franz Lanting, its pretty much the only decent book available for the species and I do own a copy - very good read if you can get hold of one.

Breeding wise it's pretty much a free for all, Kakowet mates with all three of the females (Cheeka seems to get a little jealous of him mating others if she doesn't get some too) - because they are so promiscuous the males would normally have no idea if they are the father or not, which is probably the main reason why there is no evidence of infanticide at all in the species. If more males were present in the group they would almost certainly be getting a fair share of the action as well.

Usual association would indeed be an approximately even mix of males/females - the males would stay with their mothers whilst females will usually leave the group to join another when they reach maturity (making the presence of female alliances even more unusual as they are often unrelated to other females), for some reason unknown to me the males do not seem to form alliances in the same way. One thing I would mention is that in my view dominance is no where near as important in Bonobo society as with common Chimpanzees for example - the diversion of aggresion using sexual contact and comparitively placid nature of the species means that under normal circumstances there isn't really a need for animals to display or enforce their dominance - this seems to be supported by the relative lack of sexual dimorphism in bonobos. Basically the point I am trying to get accross is that whilst females are dominant, that is not to say that the males are ruled over and watched in the way that many females might be in other primate species.

"Chimps solve sexual issues with power, Bonobos solve power issues with sex" - sums it up in one line really - some excerpts from the book are on Wikipedia, it picks out many of the important points if you are looking for a bit more info: Bonobo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Having seen the changes in the males following the group change around I would have to say yes - Jasongo was previously the lone male and was distant from the group - usually being wherever they weren't, he seems to have found a friend with Keke and his confidence & social skills have improved greatly in my opinion. Kakowet on the other hand now seems reluctant to share space with the rest of the group, today he refused to come inside all day (meaning the other group couldn't go out) and only finally came in when offered his bed and tea (seperated from the rest of the group), I am asssuming that Luo will remain in the group so perhaps having a fourth male will allow for two to be in each group and ease some of the problems (although Keke and Luo would need to be housed seperately from Diatou to prevent them mating their mother).

I am going to update my post above with Dates/Places of birth for all the bonobos - also it would seem that the information Leipzig Zoo have on their website is incorrect as Yasa's mother was in fact also Diatou, this means that Kichele has never successfully bred (there are suspicions that she may be incapable, as her father is also her grandfather this may not be a bad thing)

17-03-2008

Do you know if Kakowet 2 from San Diego is a son of their original pair - Kakowet x Linda - or was he just named after their first male?

Hair plucking- Do you know why Bonobos in zoos- not just at Twycross- are nearly always plucked around the arms and head? Is it because they have particularly nervous dispositions? Are they very stressed by captivity? (I don't think I've ever seen a Bonobo in a zoo which didn't have some form of hair plucking).

17-03-2008

Yup, he is the famous Kakowet's son (Kakowet saved some young bonobos from drowning by recognising that the keepers were going to fill the moat with water whilst the babies were down there - he managed to alert the keepers before this happened) he is also the father of the first bonobo ever bred in the UK (Keke).

"Kakowet at the San Diego Zoo, the patriarch of captive N. American Bonobos was sitting by the moat surrounding their enclosure which had been drained for cleaning. After scrubbing the moat and releasing the apes, the keepers went to turn on the valve for refilling the moat when all of a sudden Kakowet started screaming and waving his arms at them. The keepers said it was almost as if he could talk. It turned out that several young Bonobos had entered the moat but were unable to get out. The keepers provided a chain for them to climb and all got out except for the smallest Bonobo, who was rescued by Kakowet." - from BONOBOS


I don't have a definitive answer with regards to plucking, but personally I would view it as over grooming, Cheekas baby Gemena is all but bald because she grooms her so much - when the animals are in a captive environment and don't need to spend virtually the entire day foraging for food I suppose it come naturally for them to exhibit other natural behaviours to fill the time and grooming is of course an essential behaviour for general hygiene and social bonding so is seen regularly in captivity.

18-03-2008

Thanks for the information. I saw the original Kakowet,+ his mate Linda and some of their many offspring at San Diego many years ago. I think they produced about ten babies altogether as they were nearly all handraised...

Overgrooming- as opposed to self-plucking, would make sense (in captive conditions) in a very sociable species like this so I suspect that you are right on that....