Danny Learns Something New at the Zoo

Contributor: Kalyn Profilet

Danny’s favorite thing to do is go to the zoo. His favorite exhibit is the primate area because he thinks the chimpanzees are so similar to him!

The last time Danny went to the zoo he noticed there was a new enclosure with animals that were like him too! They were bonobos.

Wow! He reminds me so

much of myself!

Danny was very interested in both the chimpanzees and the bonobos. He could talk about them all day! He asked the tour

guide which one of these animals was more similar to him.

I wonder which one is more like

me?

Chimpanzee

Bonobo

The nice tour guide explained to Danny that this is a very difficult question to answer and that it is actually a

hot debate among scientists right now.

Well son, there is a 98% chimp/human DNA

similarity and around the same amount with a

bonobo.

The nice tour guide saw that Danny was confused and decided to call a few of her

specialist coworkers over to explain it to Danny.

The scientists introduced themselves to Danny.

Hi Danny! My name is Dr. Dave and I work with the DNA inside the primates!

Hi there! My name is

Linda and I study the

social lives of the primates.

Hey Danny boy! My name is Steve and I research how the

primate is built. I call it the anatomy!

Danny was so excited to talk about his two new favorite animals, the bonobo and the chimp, and

how they were similar to him!I’m so excited to learn about the animals! Tell me more about their social lives!

I would love to Danny!

Mrs. Linda tells Danny about the social life of a chimpanzee and bonobo…

Well to start off, the bonobo’s life

is run by the girls while the chimps are run

by the boys!

Haha! That’s funny because my mom always likes to say she

runs things but American families always take the dad’s last name! I guess my mom

would like to live in a bonobo’s world.

I want to learn more Mrs. Linda!

You sure are info hungry Danny! Well both

bonobos and chimps live in “families” with lots of

boys and girls! Also, chimpanzees tend to be

a lot meaner than bonobos, yikes!

Danny was very interested in learning more from the scientists!

This is so interesting and

exciting! I’d rather be friends with a

bonobo, then!

It’s so great you’re excited about this, Danny! Chimps and Bonobos can also be

excited about things like you, they have both been

observed having emotions.

WOW! They’re more like me than I

thought!! Tell me about the DNA stuff

you were talking about, Dr. Dave!

Well Danny, DNA is what makes up who you and me are. We are born with a set of codes that tells our

body what to do and what to look like. All living things have DNA! It

looks like this…

Danny wanted to know more about DNA and how it made people so similar to chimpanzees

and bonobos

You see Danny, believe it or not, the animals behind you are 98%

the same as yourself, DNA wise.

Wow that’s insane! I would have never guess they’re that

much like me. Does one of them have more similar DNA to me than

the other?

Well that’s a common dispute but bonobos

may have more similar DNA to us by just a tiny percent because they

have not adapted to as many different homes

like the chimp.

After all this time, Danny was still asking questions.

Can you tell me more about the

anatomozy?Haha! Danny, you

mean anatomy. If you look at your own

hands you’ll notice that you can move

your thumbs separately from your other fingers. Chimps and bonobos can do

this too!

Oh yea!! Their thumbs must help

them open all those bananas!

Yes, here at the zoo they certainly do! But in the wild, chimps and bonobos don’t

come in contact with bananas as much. Which brings us to our second

topic, their digestion methods! Chimps and

bonobos don’t have the same tubes in their tummies as you do! They’re different

lengths than yours and mine.

As Danny was leaving the park, he had one final question…

So I think after all I’ve learned today about chimps and bonobos, I’d say us humans are more like the bonobos because of their more similar DNA and their

attitudes. What do you guys think?

We’d say you’re on the right

track Danny!