El bonobo (Pan paniscus), también llamado chimpancé pigmeo (o menos frecuentemente chimpancé grácil o chimpancé enano), es una de las dos especies que componen el género de los chimpancés. La otra especie del género Pan es el chimpancé común (Pan troglodytes). Los bonobos se ven raramente fuera de su hábitat natural, por lo que no son tan conocidos como los chimpancés comunes. A primera vista son muy parecidos a estos, pero suelen tener la cara negra, las orejas más pequeñas y las piernas más largas. Su área de distribución es en las densas selvas húmedas de África central. Se alimentan principalmente de frutos y hojas que cosechan de los árboles. La especie se caracteriza por la tendencia a que sus individuos andan erguidos en ocasiones, por su cultura matriarcal e igualitaria, y por el papel preponderante de la actividad sexual en su sociedad.[cita requerida] El bonobo fue descrito en 1929 por el alemán Ernst Schwarz. Se basó en un cráneo conservado en el museo de Tervuren, en Bélgica, que había sido aportado un año antes por el anatomista estadounidense Harold Coolidge como perteneciente a un joven chimpancé.

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The bonobo (/bə.ˈnoʊ.boʊ/ or /ˈbɒ.nə.boʊ/; Pan paniscus), formerly called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan; the other is Pan troglodytes, or the common chimpanzee. Although the name "chimpanzee" is sometimes used to refer to both species together, it is usually understood as referring to the common chimpanzee, whereas Pan paniscus is usually referred to as the bonobo. The bonobo is distinguished by relatively long legs, pink lips, dark face and tail-tuft through adulthood, and parted long hair on its head. The bonobo is found in a 500,000 km2 (190,000 sq mi) area of the Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa. The species is omnivorous and inhabits primary and secondary forests, including seasonally inundated swamp forests. Political instability in the region and the timidity of bonobos has meant there has been relatively little field work done observing the species in its natural habitat. Along with the common chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest extant relative to humans. Because the two species are not proficient swimmers, the formation of the Congo River 1.5–2 million years ago possibly led to the speciation of the bonobo. Bonobos live south of the river, and thereby were separated from the ancestors of the common chimpanzee, which live north of the river. There is no concrete data on population numbers, but the estimate is between 29,500 and 50,000 individuals. The species is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and is threatened by habitat destruction and human population growth and movement, though commercial poaching is the most prominent threat. They typically live 40 years in captivity; their lifespan in the wild is unknown. As of June 2016 a total of 119 live in zoos across Europe; 65 distributed between six different German zoos, and a further 54 in zoos in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and England.

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