Chimpanzee civil war after group division sheds light on the biology of warfare

Amazing stuff! Group division and territorial disputes between new subgroups?

Oddly, the research article based on its abstract does not discuss the possibility of territorial disputes between the two subgroups of Chimpanzees.

"Chimpanzee civil war sheds light on the biology of warfare

Chimpanzees, like humans, routinely fight, and sometimes even kill each other. But unlike us, their communities rarely split into two groups and launch a civil war. By observing a chimp community in Uganda for 30 years, the researchers behind a new Science study reveal how friends turned into foes without shortages of food or cultural rifts dividing them.

More than 200 chimps in a densely forested Kibale region called Ngogo lived peacefully between 1995, when researchers first started tracking their movements and behaviors, and 2015. Although they separated into so-called Central and Western groups, the chimps frequently intermingled, with many cross-group matings.

But following the rapid death of five adult males who apparently served as peacekeepers, the Western group turned against the Central one. Over 6 years, males in the Western group killed seven adult males and 17 infants in the Central group. Even though they were larger in number, the Central group males curiously never ganged up to kill any of the Western chimps.

The civil war—only the second one ever documented in wild chimps—both clarifies motivations for human warfare and spotlights how we differ from one of our closest relatives. “You do not need ideology to generate hostilities,”  ... “The motivations for warfare are much more concerned with our biology than people would have believed a long time ago.” ...

“A hostile split among wild chimpanzees is a reminder of the danger that group divisions can present to human societies.” ...

that chimps aren’t as cooperative and prosocial as humans. “Instead of attacking our neighbors, we go out of [our] way to help them, even if they are complete strangers,” ..."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

Group conflict among nonhuman animals from mongooses to monkeys is well known. However, lethal conflict among groups of animals that were once socially affiliated has not previously been observed outside of humans, in whom cultural ideologies can drive divisions among individuals within the same group. Sandel et al. now describe the gradual dissipation of a group of Ngogo chimpanzees over many years, ending with two socially isolated groups, one of which conducted multiple lethal raids upon the other, leading to the death of both adults and infants ... The unrelated deaths of key interconnected individuals may have contributed to the eventually violent split. ...

Abstract

Territorial conflicts in animals can inform aspects of human warfare, but civil war, with its shifting group identities, has not been previously observed. We report a rare, permanent fission in the largest-known group of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). 

Using 30 years of behavioral observations and network analyses, we describe a transition from cohesion to polarization in 2015 and the emergence of two distinct groups by 2018.

Over the next 7 years, members of one group made 24 attacks, killing at least seven mature males and 17 infants in the other group. These findings indicate that group identities can shift and escalate into lethal hostility in one of our closest living relatives in the absence of the cultural markers often thought necessary for human warfare."

ScienceAdviser

Civil war among wild chimpanzees (Perspective, open access) "A violent split in a group of chimpanzees highlights the evolutionary roots of war and peace"

Lethal conflict after group fission in wild chimpanzees (open access)

Fig. 1. Network and spatial separation precede a shift from association to violence.

Fig. 4. Territorial patrols between Western and Central chimpanzees.

In 2016, chimpanzees that would become members of the Western group (orange) began engaging in territorial patrols toward chimpanzees that would become members of the Central group (blue). In 2017, we observed the first patrols by Central chimpanzees toward Western chimpanzees. We summed the number of these within-Ngogo patrols quarterly from 2016 to 2024.

When nature calls, diverse tree-dwelling mammals seek out the same latrine

Amazing stuff!

"All animals, regardless of habitat, must heed the call of nature. But where do wild critters go when they need to go?

Some terrestrial animals do their business in communal latrines—more rugged versions of a public bathroom. These sites can serve as communication hubs among and between species and often play an important role in shaping local ecosystems. Raccoon latrines, for example, may create an “ecology of fear” that scares off other species at risk of dying from roundworm parasites in racoon poop.

Scientists know comparatively little, meanwhile, about the habits of animals that dwell in forest canopies. Learning more would involve scaling large trees, which presents a number of dangers for researchers. ...

set up a camera trap at one latrine... the camera captured visits from an astonishing 17 mammal species , including porcupines, coatis, and several monkeys. ..."

From the abstract:

"We report the discovery of arboreal multi-species mammal latrines in montane cloud forests of Costa Rica. We surveyed 169 trees from 29 species.

Canopy multi-species latrines were only found in 11 individuals of a single tree species, Ficus tuerckheimii. Camera traps recorded 17 mammal species and a total of 181 visits over 60 days, indicating that some vertebrates frequently visit canopy latrines.

Among the most notable visitors was the two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni), a species long documented to descend to the ground exclusively to defecate.

Our findings suggest that sloths may also use arboreal latrines, challenging a long-standing assumption in sloth ecology and raising new questions about the drivers of their defecation behavior.

As with terrestrial latrines, canopy latrines may also play a role in interspecific communication, provide spatial cues, and affect nutrient dynamics in forest canopies. All these aspects highlight the potentially important role that Ficus tuerckheimii might have in these interaction points."

ScienceAdviser

Multi-Species Canopy Latrines in Costa Rican Cloud Forests: A Mammal Interactions Hub in a Single Tree Species (open access)

Fig. 1 Canopy latrine in Ficus tuerckheimii. (A) Location of the canopy latrine used for this study, 30 m above ground. The circle indicates the latrine's position at the main branch union. (B) Feces from multiple species at the latrine. ...

Unprecedented footage shows sperm whales joining forces to help a newborn calf

Amazing stuff!

"The researchers quickly realized they had in fact observed a group of whales helping a calf take its first breath. Even more fortuitous, they had captured it on video from a drone.

It’s rare for researchers to see a sperm whale birth, with only a handful having been recorded previously.

And this time, overhead footage allowed the scientists to meticulously analyze the individual whales’ behavior before, during, and after the delivery. Although researchers have long hypothesized that sperm whales cooperate in certain social situations, the new study—reported today in Science—shows whales from different family branches can work together to support a newborn calf. ..."

Unprecedented footage shows sperm whales joining forces to help a newborn calf | Science | AAAS

Why bats give gifts | Surprising Science

Recommendable! A Christmas video!

This Mother Hen Talks To Her Eggs – And They Chirp Back!

Amazing stuff!

Killer whales groom each other—with pieces of kelp

Amazing stuff!

"In the cold waters of the Salish Sea, just off the coast of British Columbia, you might be able to catch a glimpse of a killer whale’s skincare routine. Using their teeth, the giant ocean predators break off short lengths of bull kelp, a seaweed that looks like a multitailed whip, and place it between their stomach and the belly of another whale. The result is a magnificent image: two killer whales, moving in synchrony, their bodies making a curved “S” shape as they hug a small piece of kelp between them.

This act of mutual exfoliation, which researchers call “allokelping” in a study ... marks the first time aquatic mammals have ever been observed making tools to cooperatively groom each other. ...

Researchers have long known marine mammals can make tools.

Bottlenose dolphins, for example, detach marine sponges and wear them over their noses to protect them from sharp objects on the marine floor as they look for fish to eat.

And whales, which constantly shed their skin like humans do, are no strangers to using tools for grooming. Bowhead whales in the waters near Canada’s Baffin Island sometimes rub themselves on rocks to slough off dead skin, much like humans use pumice stones as an exfoliator. ..."

From the abstract:

"The manufacture and use of tools, while widespread in terrestrial animals, has been less frequently reported in marine taxa. In cetaceans, clear examples of tool use are largely restricted to foraging contexts, with no reports of cetaceans fashioning tools by modifying objects. Here, we report evidence of the widespread manufacture and use of allogrooming tools in a population of resident killer whales (Orcinus orca ater)."

Killer whales groom each other—with pieces of kelp | Science | AAAS "In a newly discovered form of social tool use, orcas scratch each other’s backs with seaweed"

Killer whales make seaweed ‘tools’ to scratch each other’s backs (original news release)

Manufacture and use of allogrooming tools by wild killer whales (open access)

Figure 1 Allokelping in southern resident killer whales.

(A) Fashioning kelp stipes for allokelping. (Left) J41 grasps a kelp stalk by the holdfast end and (right) detaches a short segment.

(B) J19 and J51 allokelping with the kelp stipe visible between them (inset).

(C) J56 exhibiting an S-pose while allokelping with J57 (inverted).

(D) J pod allokelping network. Nodes (circles/squares) represent individuals, while edge (lines) thickness indicates the observed rate of allokelping.

Grey polygons demarcate matrilines. Node size indicates age, shape indicates sex, and color indicates relative level of skin molting as indicated in the legend. ...

Rachel E. John, one of the study authors

Female baboons with close father bonds tend to live longer lives, study finds

Amazing stuff! Father's Day was just last week!

It seems, the article does not say how much genetics was involved or whether the fathers also had a longer than usual lifespan.

Caveat: I did not read the study.

"A team of biologists and wildlife specialists ... and Amboseli Baboon Research Project, in Kenya, has found evidence that female baboons who have relatively strong ties with their fathers while growing up tend to live longer lives. For their study, ... the [team] tracked the lifespans of more than 200 wild female baboons living in Kenya.

Prior research has shown that most primate fathers typically play little to no role in raising their young—humans appear to be the main exception. ..."

From the abstract:

"Parent–offspring relationships can have profound effects on offspring behaviour, health and fitness in adulthood. These effects are strong when parents make heavy investments in offspring care. 

However, in some mammals, including several species of carnivores, rodents and primates, fathers live and socialize with offspring, but paternal care per se is subtle or indirect.

Do these limited father–offspring relationships also affect later-life outcomes for offspring? Working in a well-studied baboon population where males contribute little direct offspring care, we found that juvenile female baboons who had stronger paternal relationships, or who resided longer with their fathers, led adult lives that were 2–4 years longer than females with weak or short paternal relationships.

This pattern did not differ between females who experienced high versus low levels of early-life adversity; hence, paternal relationships were equally protective in both harsh and benign early environments. Males’ relationships were strongest with juvenile females they were most likely to have sired and when males had few mating opportunities. Hence, father–daughter relationships may be constrained by male mating effort. Because survival predicts female fitness, fathers and their daughters may experience selection to engage socially and stay close in daughters’ early lives."

Female baboons with close father bonds tend to live longer lives, study finds

Early-life paternal relationships predict adult female survival in wild baboons (open access)

Credits: Studie: Gute Vaterbeziehung verlängert das Leben junger Pavian-Weibchen

Fig. 2 Juvenile females’ paternal grooming relationships and co-residency predict their adult survival

Superorganism Living worm towers seen in nature for the first time. A case of collective hitchhiking in nature no matter the age of the worm

Amazing stuff! 

Can you believe there is "no role specialization among individuals in towers"!  Old worms can do it too! 😊

"When food runs out and competition heats up, nematodes assemble into living towers. They writhe and twist towards the sky with the goal of latching on to a passing animal to hitch a ride to more comfortable digs.

Scientists had hypothesised this for decades, but no one had seen these aggregations form outside of the laboratory. Now, researchers in Germany have recorded the first video footage of nematodes “towering” in the real world in decaying apples and pears. ..."

"

• First evidence of “living towers” in nature: observed in rotting apples and pears from local orchards in Konstanz, Germany
• Tower function confirmed: towers can attach to passing insects and can bridge physical gaps to disperse
• A powerful model: C. elegans are a new a tool for studying the ecology and evolution of collective dispersal

"

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• We report the first direct evidence of nematode towers occurring in nature

• Towers can serve to bridge gaps and disperse multiple individuals via phoresy

• Worms from all life stages can tower

• There is no role specialization among individuals in towers

Summary

Dispersal behavior allows organisms to find new resources under harsh conditions; collective dispersal in group-living organisms raises interesting questions about kin selection, cooperation, and social conflicts that offer an exciting window into the evolution of sociality. 

One type of collective dispersal is when individuals physically link their bodies into a super-organism and move as a group, but these phenomena are rare in nature and few empirical systems exist to enable their mechanistic dissection. Individuals of many nematode species can group together and self-assemble into a living tower of worms, which is hypothesized to be a collective dispersal structure. However, direct evidence demonstrating the occurrence and the function of towers in nature has been scarce.

We documented towering behavior under natural, semi-natural, and laboratory conditions to confirm its existence and then manipulated these towers to confirm that they can bridge gaps and respond to external stimuli to confer group dispersal by phoresy. Having established the ecological and functional relevance of nematode towers, we developed a laboratory towering assay with the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans to exploit its experimental capabilities. Our lab assay rapidly and robustly induces towering and reveals several fundamental characteristics of both the towers and the constituent individuals, which together demonstrate the high experimental potential of using our model and the ample future research avenues that it opens.

In summary, combining ecological relevance and empirical possibilities, our work sets the key foundations to establish nematode towering behavior as a powerful opportunity to elucidate the ecology, the mechanisms, and the evolution of collective dispersal."

Living worm towers seen in nature for the first time

Tower power (original news release) "Living worm towers are recorded in the wild for the first time, a rare example of collective hitchhiking in nature"

Towering behavior and collective dispersal in Caenorhabditis nematodes

A tower of fluorescent labelled C.elegans, using a pointed bristle for support

Is this not a cute drawing? One of the researchers is possibly a great fan of Leonardo da Vinci or Albrecht Dürer! 😊 You don't see such drawings very often anymore in scientific works.

Graphical abstract

Cockatoos have learned to use public drinking fountains in Australia

Enjoy!

Superb Birds make friends too, 20-year study finds

Amazing stuff! The longer you observe, the more you discover!

"... The only complex "friend-like" relationship seen in vertebrates is known as cooperative breeding, in which two individuals assist in raising the young. Yet, for African starlings, the bonds they form go far beyond mere parenting duties. ...

Now, a new study with 20-years of field data, published in the journal Nature, has discovered that the African superb starling (Lamprotornis superbus) forms mixed-kin groups with anywhere from 7 to 60 members, living similarly to how we humans do. ...

After surveying for over 40 consecutive breeding seasons, researchers were able to decipher the relationship between breeders and helpers.

They found each breeding pair was aided by up to 16 non-breeders, i.e., helpers. This aid even included foraging for the hatchlings and defending the nest from predators. In return, this helped in group augmentation, increasing group size. The adult survival rate of larger starling groups was seen to be higher than that in smaller groups. ..."

From the abstract:

"Identifying the mechanisms that underlie cooperation is fundamental to biology. The most complex form of cooperation in vertebrates occurs in cooperative breeders, in which helpers forego reproduction and assist in raising the young of others, typically relatives. Not all cooperative societies, however, are kin-based—nearly half of all avian and mammalian cooperative breeders form mixed-kin societies, much like those of humans. Kin selection in mixed-kin societies occurs when individuals gain indirect fitness from the preferential helping of relatives, but helpers also frequently assist non-kin, highlighting a potential role for direct fitness in stabilizing cooperative societies.

Here, using a 20-year study of superb starlings (Lamprotornis superbus), we examined how direct and indirect fitness jointly influence helping behaviour. Although we detected kin-biased helping (demonstrating kin selection), non-kin helping was common despite opportunities to aid kin. Unexpectedly, specific pairs maintained long-term reciprocal helping relationships by swapping social roles across their lifetimes—a subtle pattern of reciprocity requiring decades of observation to detect.

Given the frequency of non-kin helping and the occurrence of reciprocal helping among both kin and non-kin, helping behaviour in superb starlings seems to be greatly influenced by direct fitness. However, the relative importance of direct and indirect fitness varied with helpers’ sex and dispersal history. By uncovering a cryptic yet crucial role of long-term reciprocal helping, we suggest that reciprocity may be an underappreciated mechanism promoting the stability of cooperatively breeding societies."

African starlings form complex social bonds beyond family ties

New Study Shows That Birds Form Bonds That Look a Lot Like Friendship

A cryptic role for reciprocal helping in a cooperatively breeding bird (open access)

Extended Data Fig. 1: Superb starlings are obligate cooperative breeders, with every breeding pair assisted by up to 16 nonbreeding helpers.

Chimpanzees have rhythm, chimpanzee communities have their own beat

Amazing stuff! Let the music play! Play it one more time! 😊

"Deep in the African rainforest, chimps aren’t just making noise—they’re drumming to the beat of their own communities. Two new studies reveal that chimpanzees drum with distinct, consistent rhythms that differ between groups, hinting at the roots of human musicality.

In one study, a team analyzed 370 drumming bouts from wild chimps from two subspecies over 25 years. The researchers found that western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) tend to drum in even beats, “like the ticking of a clock,” ... However, eastern chimps (P.t. schweinfurthii ) use a more varied rhythm, alternating short and long pauses. These patterns, paired with pant-hoots and body swaying suggesting deep-rooted social or cultural influences.

Meanwhile, another study ... a rare twist: Some western chimps drum with stones. In Guinea-Bissau, researchers analyzed chimps throwing rocks at resonant tree trunks—often at trees where stones were already stockpiled—suggesting a socially learned, possibly cultural behavior.

The fact that chimps not only drum rhythmically but also vary how they do it raises questions about the evolutionary origins of music. It’s not just random noise—it’s a structured communication signal."

From the highlights and abstract (1):

"Highlights

• Chimpanzees show non-random timing and isochrony in drumming

• Chimpanzee drumming shows key elements of human musical rhythm

• Chimpanzee drumming shows regional (subspecies) variation across diverse ecologies

• Eastern and western chimpanzees have different drumming rhythms

Summary

Rhythmic percussion is present across human cultures and has been proposed as one of the earliest evolved forms of musical expression.

Key features of human rhythmic percussion include individual and regional variation, as well as structural features widespread across musical cultures, such as the use of non-random timing and isochrony (i.e., evenly spaced note onsets). Comparative studies of drumming in our ape relatives contribute to understanding the evolutionary origins of human rhythmic percussion. In this context, large, diverse datasets allow testing for species-level universals and regional variation. Chimpanzees and bonobos, like humans, drum on instrumental substrates. 

Wild chimpanzees drum on resonant tree buttresses, showing individual variation during traveling and resting contexts, and often integrate drumming into their long-distance pant-hoot vocalizations. But whether wild chimpanzee drumming shows structural musical features and regional variation in rhythm or in its integration within pant-hoots remains unknown.

We show that wild chimpanzees drum with non-random timing and isochrony, providing evidence that rhythmic drumming on instrumental substrates may have been present in our last common ancestor. Furthermore, we found subspecies-level regional rhythmic variation, showing that western chimpanzees drum isochronously, while eastern chimpanzees drum by alternating shorter and longer inter-hit intervals. Western chimpanzees also produce more drumming hits, drum at a faster tempo, and integrate drumming earlier in the pant-hoot vocalization, typically during the rhythmic build-up phase. Chimpanzee buttress drumming shows both species-level structural features of human musicality and stable subspecies regional differences across diverse ecologies."

From the abstract (2):

"Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) communicate in complex ways, including sounds produced by hand and foot drumming on trees, often combined with loud vocalizations. Recently, a puzzling stone throwing behaviour at trees was observed, resulting in stone piles at tree buttresses.

It is a rare case of tool used for communication in animals and suggested to function like buttress drumming in long-distance communication and male displays. We tested this hypothesis by determining the behavioural dynamics in comparison to hand and foot tree buttress drumming in Western chimpanzees in Boé, Guinea Bissau. Using camera traps, we show that in 78% of cases, stones were picked up at trees, not leading to further stone accumulation beyond the already existing stone piles.

Stone-assisted and hand and foot drumming occurred separately or were combined in similar behavioural contexts in apparent long-distance communication and highly aroused behavioural contexts. 

Yet, immediately before stone drumming, chimpanzees swayed less and pant-hooted more while afterwards pant-hooting less compared to the other contexts, suggesting a separate motivation and/or function for stone-assisted drumming. It suggests this unique stone-based activity has its own signal value, separate from hand/foot buttress drumming and, considering the spatial variation, might be culturally transmitted."

ScienceAdviser

Chimpanzee drumming may give clues to the roots of rhythm "Behavior is more complex than scientists realized, could reveal origins of musicality"

Ist Musik älter als die Menschheit? –Schimpansen trommeln rhythmisch (original press release)

New Insights Into Rare Stone-Throwing Behavior in Chimpanzees (original news release)

Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation (open access)

Stone-assisted drumming in Western chimpanzees and its implications for communication and cultural transmission (open access)

Figure 1 Examples of chimpanzee subspecies’ drumming

Weird wormy creature may have revealed the origin of the anus

Amazing stuff! What came first release of sperm or waste through a hole?

"... it was a huge development in the evolution of animals: A one-way gut was a game changer when it came to absorbing nutrients, as it allowed for sequential digestion. ... [compared to] vomit up waste ... The hole was co-opted from one used to release sperm.

The team studied Xenoturbella bocki, which belongs to a group of animals called xenacoelomorphs. These animals look so much like flatworms that they were lumped in together, until genetic analyses revealed they weren’t closely related after all. Instead, xenacoelomorphs were one of the first offshoots in the clade known as bilaterians—creatures with bilateral symmetry, like us. Another key trait of bilaterians: a one-way digestive system. ...

Xenoturbella bocki lacks a wonderful exit to its digestive tract, which researchers suspect is because xenacoelomorphs broke off from other bilaterians just before the anus evolved. That means these creatures could provide insights into how the opening first appeared. So the team studied the animals, looking for the expression of genes associated with the hindgut. Despite not having an anus themselves, the wormy critters did express genes associated with the opening—or, males did, anyway. The genes are active in a structure called the gonopore, a hole that releases sperm.

“These findings suggest a deep evolutionary relationship between the xenacoelomorph male gonopore and the bilaterian anus,” the team wrote. “What happened is likely that the hole [gonopore] existed, and the digestive system was close by,” lead author Andreas Hejnol told New Scientist. “And then they just fused. They connected to each other, and they made a common opening.” ..."

From the abstract:

"The bilaterian through gut with an anal opening is a key invention in animals, since it facilitates effective food processing, which allows animals to grow to a larger body size.

However, because non-bilaterian animals lack a through gut, the evolution of anus is still debated.

The formation of bilaterian hindgut is governed by the spatial expression of several transcription factors (e.g. Caudal and Brachyury) under the control of Wnt signaling. This conserved pattern has been used to support the homology of the anus of protostomes (insects, snails) and deuterostomes (sea urchins, humans). Here we show, that these bilaterian “hindgut” marker genes are expressed around the male gonopore of several xenacoelomorphs, which have a blind gut without an anal opening.

These findings suggest a deep evolutionary relationship between the xenacoelomorph male gonopore and the bilaterian anus. Since xenacoelomorphs are the potential sister group to all remaining Bilateria, our results suggest that the bilaterian anus evolved from a male gonopore that came in contact with the digestive endoderm to form the posterior opening."

ScienceAdviser

The xenacoelomorph gonopore is homologous to the bilaterian anus (preprint, open access)

Fig. 1 The hypothetical evolutionary transition from a blind gut to a through gut.

Crows demonstrate abstract geometric intuition comparable to humans

Amazing stuff! How smart are crows, we humans wonder since ancient times!

"Humans have an innate sense for geometry. ...

Researchers first had the clever corvids learn to peck at a particular shape, like a [circle], to get a treat. Then they placed that shape amidst four different ones—stars, for instance. When the birds had no trouble spotting the outlier, the team jacked up the difficulty, asking the animals to spot an irregular quadrilateral amongst a sea of squares. Though monkeys previously failed at this test, the birds excelled. ..."

From the abstract:

"The perception of geometric regularity in shapes, a form of elementary Euclidean geometry, is a fundamental mathematical intuition in humans.

We demonstrate this geometric understanding in an animal, the carrion crow. Crows were trained to detect a visually distinct intruder shape among six concurrent arbitrary shapes. The crows were able to immediately apply this intruder concept to quadrilaterals, identifying the one that exhibited differing geometric properties compared to the others in the set.

The crows exhibited a geometric regularity effect, showing better performance with shapes featuring right angles, parallel lines, or symmetry over more irregular shapes. This performance advantage did not require learning. Our findings suggest that geometric intuitions are not specific to humans but are deeply rooted in biological evolution."

ScienceAdviser

Crows recognize geometric regularity (open access)

Fig. 1. Intruder detection task.

Preserving the dead: Meet the Singapore museum curator who collects roadkill for research

What a job! But you never know what you find!

The Arms Race That Made Insects Take Flight during evolution

Very recommendable!

Can animals make art? Art for art's sake!

Depends probably very much on how one defines art. Or art/beauty is in the eye of the (human) beholder.

"... Of course, figuring out whether something is a work of art requires answering some tricky philosophical questions. Are animals even capable of creating art? And how can we tell whether something is a work of art rather than just a coincidentally beautiful object? As a philosopher and artist who’s interested in aesthetics and biology, I recently wrote about the evolution of behaviors in animals that could be seen as art. ...

There’s a general agreement that art must have some sort of producer and some possible or intended audience. In this way, it’s similar to other forms of communication. ..."

Can animals make art?

A male satin bowerbird stands before his creation. Ken Griffiths/iStock via Getty Images

Source

Pablo Pigasso?

Elefantin trauert um beste Freundin nach 25 Jahren Partnerschaft

Sehr empfehlenswert und traurig!

Sex in chimpanzees and bonobos resolves stress and conflict and sex prior to feeding

Good news! The joy of sex!

"... The team found that both bonobos and chimpanzees used sex in similar ways to ease tension and reaffirm social bonds before feeding.

Bonobos also often had sex more after fights to repair social relations.  

Chimpanzees, however, may be more likely to use other behaviours, like body kissing, after a disagreement.

Age did not influence post-fight sexual behaviour in either species. However, older apes were more likely to initiate sex before feeding, suggesting it may be a learned behaviour passed down over time.

Researchers also noted that female bonobos and male chimpanzees were more likely to initiate sex prior to feeding, but in both species, sex occurred in both hetero and homosexual combinations. ..."

From the abstract:

"Sexual behaviour during tense social situations is extensively documented in various animals. Bonobos, our closest living relatives alongside chimpanzees, habitually perform genital contacts during social tension, which is thought to enhance cooperation and conflict management.

While chimpanzees also engage in genital contacts during these contexts, the two sister species have yet to be compared systematically, which may have led to inaccurate assumptions. To address this, we directly compared genital and non-genital affiliation among sanctuary-living bonobos and chimpanzees during two socially tense contexts—post-conflict and pre-feeding.

Following conflicts, we observed triadic affiliation between bystander–victim pairs and reconciliation between aggressor–victim pairs. Additionally, we experimentally induced a pre-feeding context to examine affiliative contact between group members. During post-conflict contexts, bonobos used genital contacts more than chimpanzees. However, both species used genital contacts comparably during pre-feeding affiliation, although female bonobos and male chimpanzees were most likely to initiate them. In addition, we found group-level variation indicating an influence of demographic factors. Our results indicate that chimpanzees and bonobos overlap significantly in their use of genital contacts during periods of social tension. Given similar evidence in humans, our results support the notion that this was a trait probably also present in our last common ancestor."

Sex in chimps and bonobos resolves stress and conflict

Bonobos and chimps give insight into early human sexual behaviour "Using sex to manage social tension dates back over six million years to humans’ common ape ancestor, according to a new study."

Bonobos and chimpanzees overlap in sexual behaviour patterns during social tension (open access)

Bonobos in a German zoo.

California Squirrels Turning Into Carnivorous predators with Molly Gambhir

Of course, humans must be responsible for this! Caution: Irony!

Elephant displays sophisticated hose skills at Berlin Zoo and fascinates scientists

Very recommendable! Amazing stuff!