“In bonobos it’s very important for males to have their mothers with them for life,” explains Parish. “We have this pejorative idea that when males are especially close to their mothers, that they’re momma’s boys and that’s a bad thing. But in this case, unlike chimps—where males separate really clearly from their mothers at adolescence in order to join the male dominance hierarchy—in bonobos, males maintain their relationship with their mother for life. She intervenes in his fights, protects him from violence; he gets to mate with her friends; he gets access to otherwise exclusive female
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