Bonobo Mothers Meddle In Their Sons’ Sex Lives – Making Them Three Times More Likely To Father Children

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BONOBOS DOING WHAT THEY DO BY GREG @ FLICKR

Bonobo Mothers Meddle In Their Sons’ Sex Lives – Making Them Three Times More Likely To Father Children

Dating is never easy, for any of us. Scenarios play over in our heads, classic questions and worries bombard us. Will she like me? Does he share the same interests? Will my mum be watching us have sex? Thankfully, that last question isn’t actually one we humans have to deal with. But new research shows that for bonobos, sex really is often a family affair. What’s more, rather than being an embarrassing hindrance, motherly presence greatly benefits bonobo sons during the deed.

Along with chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus) are our closest living relatives. Restricted to a 500,000 km² thickly-forested zone of the Congo Basin, these endangered great apes were only formally discovered in 1928, which until 2017 made them the most recently-described living great ape species.

Operating in female-led social systems, bonobos are capable of showing a wide range of what were long held as human-specific feelings and emotions, such as sensitivity, patience, compassion, kindness, empathyand altruism.

They’re also perhaps the most promiscuous non-human species on the planet.

Congo's Dr Denis Mukwege Calls For 100% New Recruits In Army & With No History of Sexual Violence

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Congo’s Dr Denis Mukwege Calls For 100% New Recruits In Army & With No History of Sexual Violence

Last week Dr Mukwege described the Congolese army as being mired in a culture of violence and as being ‘completely sick’, so sick that it should be disarmed and replaced with new recruits who have never committed sexual violence or fought for a violent militia, reports The Guardian.

The UN estimates that one-third of the rapes that occur in the eastern part of the country are committed by members of the army. Dr Mukwege’s questioning the wisdom of the international community spending large sums of money to support an army that is the greatest perpetrator of violence against women and sometimes men, too, is timely.

APROSAF Midwives in Congo Fuel Lifesaving Rescues with Briquettes

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APROSAF midwives in Congo demonstrate unbelievable courage in trying to save women’s lives.Huffington Post has published a followup to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Congo.

Secretary Clinton wrote about the Mugunga Internally Displaced Persons Camp in Goma. The American press had little interest in covering the horrors Mrs. Clinton saw on her trip, preferring to focus on the infamous question directed to her in the equally-infamous Congo press conference.

Georgianne Nienaber shares details about a project between Virunga National Park and Association pour la Promotion de la Sage Femme, a group of 118 midwives who also act as community leaders.

The respect they garner results from selfless dedication as they transport pregnant women and rape victims, sometimes by carrying them on their backs, to get help. They do this without pay and subject themselves to rape and shootings along the way.

These unbelievably courageous women will receive $20 a month to establish a brisquette business, converting refuse into fuel and then selling it for $.50 a sack. If the women repackage refuse, the trees won’t be cut down in Virunga Park, home to the last remaining mountain gorillas, but also a source of fuel.