Be my bonobo baby #Repost @natgeo with @get_repost ・・・ Photo by @FransLanting The boundaries between apes and us became blurry when I saw Lana, a female bonobo, play with an infant not her own. She balanced it on her feet in a game every human parent can relate to. Compared with chimps, bonobo brains are more developed in areas assumed to be vital for emotions like feeling empathy and sensing distress in others. I worked with a captive bonobo community to document intimate behavior impossible to capture in the dense jungles of the Congo Basin, the only place where they occur in the wild. There may be fewer than 10.000 bonobos alive and their survival depends on our ability to apply the same kind of compassion to them that we cherish so much in ourselves. Follow me @FransLanting and @ChristineEckstrom for more images of bonobos that show how different they are from chimps and how close they are to us. @natgeotravel @natgeocreative @thephotosociety #BonoboConservationInitiative #Bonobos #Chimps #Apes #Play #Compassion #Empathy #Naturelovers #Wisdom