Bonobo

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Photography by Frans Lanting
Combining the skills of world-renowned primatologist de Waal, and Frans Lanting's superb photography, this monograph presents the most up-to-date perspective available on the last ape, the primate species which is challenging established views on human evolution. Focusing on social organisation, de Waal compares the bonobo with its better-known relative, the chimpanzee. The bonobo's relatively nonviolent behaviour and the tendency for females to dominate males confront the evolutionary models derived from observing the chimpanzee's male power politics, comparative hunting, and intergroup warfare. Furthermore, the bonobo's frequent, imaginative sexual contacts, along with its low reproduction rate, belie any notion that the sole natural purpose of sex is procreation.