In humans, hunting is considered a man's endeavor. But in one of our closest living relatives, hunting is primarily women's business.
A 10-year study of wild bonobos reveals that hunting is predominantly carried out by females, regardless of whether they carry infants. They are just as skilled as males at the dangerous task of hunting monkeys in the tree canopy, and are more likely than males to take down large terrestrial prey.
The study, led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), is the first to examine hunting behavior in two wild bonobo communities across a decade and thus definitely overturns the species' reputation as largely non-hunting.
"Bonobos not only capture a wide variety of prey," says first author Dr. Gottfried Hohmann, "their communities also develop distinct hunting cultures."
The study's results also challenge narratives of gender differences in early humans. "Bonobos are a window into humanity's past," says senior author Prof. Barbara Fruth. "Thanks to these females, we can rethink the image we have formed of our hunter-gatherer ancestors."
An unlikely hunter
Bonobos are not known as great hunters. Among the great apes, it is the bonobo's closest relative—the chimpanzee—who is the famed hunter. Individuals can cooperate in highly coordinated attacks that take down large primates from treetops. These hunts are carried out by males working together, who then share the prey among themselves.
"In chimpanzees, hunting is the business of males because keeping the reward it is related to dominance," says Fruth. "But what happens in a society where females enjoy high status?"
Bonobos are unique among great apes because females are dominant alongside males. This is evident after a kill when females are in possession of the prey and decide who gets to eat and when. Fruth and Hohmann wondered if these powerful females would invert the male bias in hunting typical of chimpanzee societies.
Hunting is dominance
After analyzing 415 prey captures from bonobos at the LuiKotale field site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the pair discovered exactly that. Unlike in chimpanzees, bonobo hunting was female-biased.
Their team examined all successful prey captures seen in two habituated communities of bonobos over a decade. Because it is not always possible to see the original hunter, the team analyzed every recorded hunt in which the hunters could be identified, noting the hunters' sex and age, and the prey captured.
Females were identified as hunters in 60% of the recorded hunts. "They were the initiators of the hunts," says co-author Dr. Mattia Bessone, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz and the MPI-AB who led the analysis. "They were not opportunistically stealing prey from males."
Females also hunted regardless of maternal state, overturning the idea that mothers avoid hunting to protect their infants. The prey posing the highest risk - arboreal monkeys such as red colobus - were hunted by males and females equally. For Hohmann, this was striking.
"Young females tear through the treetops to chase monkeys who fight back in defence. This is a seriously dangerous business," he says.
Age also shaped what females hunted. Younger females pursued primates in the treetops, while older females targeted large, ground-dwelling ungulates such as forest antelopes, taking these three times more often than males. Once the antelope is caught, the females also enjoy the privilege of keeping their sizeable prize, and the authors say this power is the secret to their success.
"Catching prey is one thing but maintaining control of the carcass is another one," says Hohmann. "It's possible that males are not capturing large prey in order to avoid conflicts with females over meat."
Beyond "man the hunter"
The results raise questions about hunting in the last common ancestor of humans, bonobos, and chimpanzees who lived 5–7 million years ago. "Chimpanzee behavior alone may not provide a reliable picture of how this ancestor hunted," says Fruth.
The findings thus challenge a familiar narrative about human evolution: that hunting was primarily a male activity. If female bonobos can be the main hunters in a society where females hold high status, male-dominated hunting was not necessarily the only path available to our ancestors.
A dynamic culture
The team also compared hunting behavior between the two neighboring communities. Despite access to the same prey, the communities consistently differed in what they hunted. The first hunted mostly terrestrial mammals, whereas the second specialized in hunting monkeys. The findings suggest that bonobo hunting is shaped by local traditions, rather than simply by the availability of prey.
The team plans to investigate these differences further, exploring how hunting strategies vary between communities and how they change over time.
