What bonobos could tell us about adoption in humans

Flora suckling from her adopted mother Marie, while Marie's biological offspring, Marina and Margaux, are playing nearby. Credit: Nahoko Tokuyama - We're part of an international team that has seen the first evidence of wild bonobo apes adopting infants who were born outside of their social group. Adoptive mothers in the wild are usually related to orphaned infants or sometimes young females will adopt orphans to improve their own maternal skills. But in two separate cases scientists, including a psychologist from Durham, saw adoption among bonobos from different groups living in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The researchers say their findings could help explain the emotional reason behind why people readily adopt children who they have had no previous connection with. Adopted infants Chio, thought to be a post-menopausal female bonobo aged between 52 to 57 years old, was seen to adopt three-year-old Ruby who had been part of another unknown group. Marie, an 18-year-old bonobo also adopted two-and-half-year-old Flora after Flora's mother disappeared from a separate group.