Among bonobos, more aggression is observed from females towards males, unlike among chimpanzees

It is an interesting study that, rather than completely overturning what we already knew about bonobos, helps us to refine our understanding. It had already been observed that non-lethal aggression can be equal to or even greater in bonobos than in chimpanzees in some contexts. We also knew that coalitions of females in this species are mainly directed against males. Perhaps the most interesting contribution is the enormous disparity between groups: everything points to the social structure of each group being key in predicting the violence we will find in it, and that it is not enough to talk about bonobos or chimpanzees in the abstract.

This publication runs the risk of being oversimplified in the press, so I think it is important to emphasise that this study does not show that chimpanzees and bonobos are equivalent in terms of “violence” in a general sense. What it does show is that, if we use a broad definition of everyday aggression within the group (ranging from threats and displays to biting or trampling), the rates observed in captivity may be comparable. But that conclusion cannot simply be extrapolated to more extreme forms of violence, such as lethal aggression, which the article itself acknowledges as well documented in chimpanzees but not in bonobos. As far as we know, there remains a significant difference between the two species in these cases of extreme violence.