Last Sunday I was watching an in depth interview of more than 3 hours with Dutch researcher Frans De Waal. He is one of the leading experts of the Bonobo ape. The Bonobo ape does very much resembles the chimpanzee in looks - a bit smaller - but has quite a different character. The DNA of both species is for about 99,5% the same. We humans are about 98,5% the same to the chimpanzee.

According to De Waal, humans are as close related to the bonobo as to the chimpanzee.

The relation between both ape species and humans can be described as:

• the bonobo and chimpanzee are sisters
• the human is the niece of the bonobo and the chimpanzee

The human is therefore as close related to the chimpanzee as to the bonobo. But both apes are so much different in character, the question arises to which species the human is most equivalent to. Science always researched the relation between the human and chimpanzee, much more than the relation between the human and bonobo. The chimpanzee would provide the reasons why our human societies are male dominated and violent; Chimpanzees are killers, going to war and the males are the boss.

In contrast, the bonobo is very friendly, sensitive, and has empathy. The females are the boss, has an unselfish concern for the welfare of others, and have the habit to solve conflicts with sex, lots of sex. In addition, they are one of the few animal species making love and french kiss for fun. They may from time to time hunt other animals and even apes, they do not make war. When two groups meet, they generally engage each other with all friendliness and make love with members of the other group. When engaging, baby bonobos generally are on the back of their mother, instead of hanging underneath at the belly for protection, like with the chimpanzees.

De Waal explains during the TV interview: When a bonobo once saw a little bird flying against the window of his home in a zoo, the bonobo carefully took the bird to the top of one of the highest nearby trees. At the top the bonobo carefully unfolded the wings of the bird and let it go like a paper plain. Unfortunately the bird crashed. The bonobo climbed from the tree and watched and protected the wounded bird from any danger. At the end of the day the bird was recovered and flew away.

Social behavioural scientist Elizabeth Hammock en Larry Young discovered humans and bonobos have a piece of DNA that regulates our reactions to the hormon vasopressine. This hormon helps to connect with our children or other people. Chimpanzees do not have this piece of DNA.

In 2013 De Waal published the book "The Bonobo and the Athiest" in which he gives his answer to the question 'if we need religion to be good'. De Waal answers this question by looking at the bonobo. 'In a bonobo community, a church has never been established', he states. But that is not necessary at all: in the wicked universe of the bonobo or chimpanzee: pity, care and justice do indeed exist. The fact that these qualities are older than humanity shows De Waal in his book.

Frans de Waal (1948) is professor of psychology at the Emory University in Atlanta and director of the Living Links Center of the Yerkes Primate Center. He is in the top 100 most influential people of the magazine Time.