Reacción a "Female bonobos gain power over males by forming aggressive coalitions"

In this study, Surbeck and his colleagues present compelling quantitative data demonstrating that female bonobos form coalitions to gain dominance over males. As the authors point out, although species with high female power relative to males have been studied for a long time, our understanding of the factors that shape this dynamic and its relevance for explaining sex dynamics remains limited. The authors tested three hypotheses—the self-organisation hypothesis, the reproductive control hypothesis, and the female coalition hypothesis—based on data collected from six wild bonobo communities over 30 years of observation. Given the difficulties of systematically collecting data on wild bonobos, this collaborative, multi-site approach is particularly valuable. It allows hypotheses to be tested rigorously and provides a more nuanced understanding of both species-wide patterns and variation within the species.

Surprisingly, the results supported the least discussed hypothesis: the female coalition hypothesis. This suggests that, in bonobos, female power arises from coalition aggression against males, allowing them to win a greater share of intersexual conflicts and rise in social rank. These findings add to the growing literature demonstrating that bonobos and chimpanzees—our two closest living relatives—exhibit strikingly different sex power dynamics. These differences, in turn, may influence each species' aggression strategy. Importantly, the study highlights the role of mutual social support among unrelated females in shaping patterns of sex-based dominance. These findings are significant not only for better understanding bonobo society, but also for broadening our comparative framework on female social strategies across all animals, including humans, where increasing attention is being paid to the importance of female social networks and the influence of women in human societies.