Publications

In bonobos, strong bonds have been documented between unrelated females and between mothers and their adult sons, which can have important fitness benefits. Often age, sex or kinship similarity have been used to explain social bond strength variation. Recent studies in other species also stress the importance of personality, but this relationship remains to be investigated in bonobos. We used behavioral observations on 39 adult and adolescent ...

Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is associated with social dominance in human and non-human primates, which may reflect the effects of testosterone on facial morphology and behaviour. Given that testosterone facilitates status-seeking motivation, the association between fWHR and behaviour should be contingent on the relative costs and benefits of particular dominance strategies across species and socioecological contexts. We tested this ...

The human thumb is specialized for manual tasks as it is no longer typically involved in locomotion. However, members of the genus Pan - the closest extant relatives of modern humans - also have a highly mobile thumb, which allows complex manual tasks such as tool-crafting and use. Here, we investigate the thumb kinematics of bonobos (Pan paniscus) in relation to the morphology of their trapeziometacarpal joint using unembalmed bonobo specimens ...

Background: Ecological immunology proposes that the optimal immune defence, and the costs coming with it, vary across environments. In environments with higher pathogen load, the immune system should experience greater challenges and, therefore, investment in maintaining it should be higher. The biomarker neopterin allows monitoring of innate immune responses, and is therefore an ideal tool to investigate the effects of ecological variables on ...

The inertial properties of body segments reflect performance and locomotor habits in primates. While Pan paniscus is generally described as more gracile, lighter in body mass, and as having relatively longer and heavier hindlimbs than Pan troglodytes, both species exhibit very similar patterns of (quadrupedal and bipedal) kinematics, but show slightly different locomotor repertoires. We used a geometric model to estimate the inertial properties ...

The immunological factors that could explain the near absence of malaria parasites in bonobos are not yet understood. The MHC class I system, however, may play an important role, as particular bonobo allotypes show functional similarities to HLA-B*53/B*78, which are considered to confer protection against malaria in humans.