Bonobos and People at Wamba: 50 Years of Research

This book reviews all the findings about bonobos and the local people of Wamba village in the Luo Scientific Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo over the last 50 years. In 1973, Takayoshi Kano, a Japanese primatologist, traveled across a vast area of the Congo Basin with a bicycle and found Wamba village to be a promising site to start his first studies on wild bonobos. Since then, many researchers from Japan and all over the world have been working at Wamba, now the longest standing study site, to uncover various aspects of the ecology and behavior of this most recently identified great ape species. The researchers study bonobo behaviors and carry out various activities for the conservation of bonobos. They also conduct anthropological studies of local people who live with bonobos and believe them to be distant relatives from the same family, living in the forest. This book is published in commemoration of 2023 marking the 50th year of study. The main chapters are contributed by active researchers studying bonobos and the local people at Wamba. The book also includes contributions from various eminent researchers who have carried out short-term research or have supported research at Wamba, which helps place these studies of bonobos in a broader primatological or anthropological perspective.

This book will be a useful resource for professional researchers in primatology and anthropology, as well as graduate or undergraduate students interested in these research fields.

The first book on bonobos at a long-term study site, with active experts as contributors Reviews all aspects of wild bonobos and activities of local people in Wamba village, DR Congo Includes bonobo studies from different study sites and comparisons with chimpanzees and other primates or mammal species

Auteur

Takeshi Furuichi is an emeritus professor and a specially appointed professor at Kyoto University, Japan. From 1991 he worked at Meiji-Gakuin University and since 2008 he has worked at the Primate Research Institute and the Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University. His main research interests include the female life history and the social organization of great apes, and the process of human evolution. He has 40 years of experience in research on bonobos at Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and 27 years of research on chimpanzees at Kalinzu Forest Reserve, Uganda. He also played an important role in the conservation of great apes as a member of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group executive committee.

Gen'ichi Idani is an emeritus professor and a specially appointed professor at Kyoto University, Japan. He has been a professor and director of the Wildlife Research Center at Kyoto University since 2008. His research interestsinclude the sociology of African great apes and the socio-ecology of large mammals. He is also the general director of the Japan Monkey Centre and the academic advisor of the Kyoto City Zoo.

Daiji Kimura was a professor at the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, until 2020. He is an emeritus professor at Kyoto University and a specially appointed professor at the Center for African Area Studies, Kyoto University. Since 1986, he has been conducting anthropological research on the Bongando people in the Wamba region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Hiroshi Ihobe is a professor at the School of Human Sciences, Sugiyama Jogakuen University, Japan.He has conducted fieldwork on bonobos, chimpanzees, red colobus, and guenons at Wamba, in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania, and in the Kalinzu Forest in Uganda since 1986. His research interests include the socio-ecology ofprimates, especially Pan and Cercopithecidae, and predator-prey relationships in primates. He has been a member of the advisory board of Primates since 2002 and a member of the editorial board of Anthropological Science since 2006.

Chie Hashimoto has been an assistant professor at the Primate Research Insitute and the Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan, since 2004. She has been studying wild bonobos in Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, since 1989 and wild chimpanzees in the Kalinzu Forest Reserve, Uganda, since 1992. Her research interests include female life history and social relationships, especially sexual behavior. She has been active in bonobo and chimpanzee conservation at both sites.

Contenu
Chapter 1. A Journey to Discover Wamba.- Chapter 2. From the Early Days of Bonobo Research.- Chapter 3. Science's Early Reception of a New Ape.- Chapter 4. Column: Mongo Forest.- Chapter 5. Column: Wamba: Base Camp for My Study in Zaïre.- Chapter 6. Column: Following Bonobos in the Forest.- Chapter 7. Column: Researchers Are Part of the Wamba Ecosystem.- Chapter 8. Sexual Behaviors and Hormonal Background of Female Bonobos.- Chapter 9. Personality Quirks and Polymorphic Genes in Bonobos.- Chapter 10. Within- and Between-Group Kin Structure of Wild Bonobos in Comparison to Other African Great Apes.- Chapter 11. Hunting and Meat-Eating Behaviors of Bonobos at Wamba: Comparison With Other Bonobo Study Sites.- Chapter 12. The Puzzle of Pan Tool Use: Why are Bonobos so Different from Chimpanzees in Their Use of Tools?.- Chapter 13. A Closer Look at Grooming Patterns in Bonobos.- Chapter 14. Bonobo Gestures, Meanings, and Context.- Chapter 15. Multiple Phases of Natal Transfer Processin Female Bonobos and Factors Underlying Each Phase: Findings from Long-Term Observations in Wild Populations.- Chapter 16. Social Behaviors of Nulliparous Adolescent Female Bonobos.- Chapter 17. Column: What Kinds of Sexual Functions Does Genito-Genital Rubbing Have as a Socio-Sexual Behavior?.- Chapter 18. Column: Food Sharing in Rich Environments.- Chapter 19. Column: Staying Together.- Chapter 20. Column: Exploring Bonobo Habitat Use in Wamba: Findings and Implications.- Chapter 21. Aggressive Behaviors and Social Dominance in Bonobos.- Chapter 22. Social Relationships in Female Bonobos.- Chapter 23. Intermale Relationships in Wild Bonobos at Wamba.- Chapter 24. Potential Benefits of Intergroup Associations and Chronological Changes of Intergroup Relationships in Bonobos.- Chapter 25. Column: From Nests and Videos to Wamba Bonobos.- Chapter 26. Column: Intergroup Aggression in Bonobos at Wamba.- Chapter 27. History of Anthropological Studies Around Wamba.- Chapter 28. SubsistenceActivities and Forest Utilization Among the Bongando People before and after the Congo War.- Chapter 29. Change of the Distribution Network Around the Wamba Region.- Chapter 30. Empowering Local Associations for Sustainable Local Development: The Case of a Collaborative Project in the Wamba Region.- Chapter 31. Taboo Against Eating Bonobos and its Degradation.- Chapter 32. The Importance of Monitoring Bonobos and Their Habitats for Informing Bonobo-Specific Conservation Prioritization and Planning.- Chapter 33. Column: A Bonobo Funeral: Relationships between Researchers and Local People as Exemplified in a Funeral Speech.- Chapter 34. Column: My First Ever Conservation Practice on African Great Apes; Bonobos in Wamba.- Chapter 35. Column: Re-Considering the Potential Geographic Distribution of Great Apes for Conservation Action: What is Suitable?.- Chapter 36. The Influence of the Congo River on the Evolutionary Trajectory of Bonobos.- Chapter 37. The Evolution of Empathy and its Expression in Bonobo.- Chapter 38. Hypotheses for the Evolution of Bonobos: Self-Domestication and Ecological Adaptation.- Chapter 39.Prolonged Sexual Receptivity in Females and its Impact on the Evolution of Bonobos.