If Maury Povich were a chimpanzee, he’d love this drama: Until recently, no one could concretely identify the paternity of Beni, a baby chimpanzee in New Zealand’s Wellington Zoo. Sally, Beni’s mother, had always had a thing with handsome Sammy, but with all the male chimpanzees she consorted with, who could say who was Beni’s daddy? Still, modern science came to the rescue: DNA testing has confirmed that Sammy is indeed the father of baby Beni — despite the fact that he’s not the alpha male of the zoo’s troop. All of Wellington zoo’s chimps are part of the Australian Species Management Programme, a carefully managed breeding program meant to help ensure the genetic diversity of the endangered primate. Beni turned the big “1″ this Wednesday.

Speaking of great apes, last week we reported on a Reuters story asserting that bonobos, chimps’ also-endangered relatives, hunt and eat chimpanzees. One of our primate-loving readers has informed us that, according to bonobo conservation expert Dr. Terese Hart, bonobos can’t be killing and eating chimpanzees because the two species live across the Congo from each other and populations have never been seen on the wrong side of the river. Turns out Reuters got it wrong — but though Bonobos don’t hunt chimpanzees, researchers have observed a handful of monkey-hunting forays by bonobos in a Congo rainforest reserve.

Read more about baby Beni in stuff.co.nz and check out Dr. Hart’s side of the bonobo debate on her Web page.”

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http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualites/sciences/20081016.OBS6189/les_bonobos_sadonnent_a_la_chasse.html

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