Among bonobos, the hunters are the females — a decade of watching rewrites the story

We tell ourselves hunting was always men's work. Ten years of watching wild bonobos at LuiKotale in DR Congo tells a different story. In a study published in Current Biology, Max Planck Institute researchers analysed 415 prey captures across two bonobo communities and found females were the hunters in 60% of hunts — initiating them, not stealing the results. Young females chase monkeys through the treetops, a genuinely dangerous pursuit; older females take large forest antelope three times more often than males, and keep control of the prize. Neighbouring communities even developed distinct hunting traditions — one favouring ground animals, the other monkeys. 'Thanks to these females, we can rethink the image we have formed of our hunter-gatherer ancestors,' said senior author Barbara Fruth.