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by dreyfiz 2962 days ago
The idea that bonobos and chimpanzees can speak the same language is absolutely thrilling. Even though bonobos are chimps, I always saw the two species as very distinct; this discovery really resets my worldview on multiple levels.
2 comments

I'm not an expert by far, but aren't many animal "gestures" shared by multiple species: lying down to surrender, standing on hind legs to threaten, showing teeth, etc...?
Also not an expert, but I suppose at some point there can be a distinction made between body language and sign language?
bonobos aren't chimps, they're separate species

https://knowledgenuts.com/2013/08/18/the-difference-between-...

"an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan; the other is Pan troglodytes, or the common chimpanzee."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo

The sentence you quote from Wikipedia starts like this:

> The bonobo (/bə.ˈnoʊ.boʊ/ or /ˈbɒ.nə.boʊ/; Pan paniscus), formerly called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee

Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee:

> The taxonomical genus Pan (often referred to as chimpanzees or chimps) consists of two extant species: the common chimpanzee and the bonobo.

It's like "crow", which can refer to a particular species (e.g., in England a crow, unqualified, usually means a carrion crow), or to the genus Corvus, which includes e.g. ravens and rooks.

Or Jackdaws! (Here’s the thing....)