Response to the New Yorker article:

Frans de Waal:

http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/07-08-08.html#feature

The idea that bonobo conflict resolution , as exemplified supposedly by sexual interaction between bonobos, might be common in a habitat of captivity and much less so in the wild.

Also, an observation on how 'liberals' praise the bonobo for being 'peace-loving' and how ironic it would be if they really are aggressive in the wild more akin to chimpanzee behaviour.

If true, this may be a great example of the observer affecting the result of scientific observation: a bonobo is put into captivity and that facilitates observation but it causes different behaviour.

It is also interesting how we interpret 'behaviour in the wild' since different animals adjust their social behaviour in different densities of population 'in the wild': there is surely a range of different 'in the wild' behaviour.

http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2007/08/03/bonobo-promiscuity-another-myth-bites-the-dust/
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/30/070730fa_fact_parker/Page 2 mentions Gottfried Hohmann [Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig]:http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/30/070730fa_fact_parker/?currentPage=2
http://primatediaries.blogspot.com/2007/07/bonobo-revisions.html
http://primatediaries.blogspot.com/2007/07/bonobo-revisions.html

Primate gene comparison

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070730173507.htm