Bonobos are complex beings with profound intelligence, emotionality, and sensitivity. Biologically speaking, bonobos are the closest you can get to being human without being human.
Bonobos look more like humans than other apes, and display many behavioral similarities as well.
But, like gorillas, they dwell only in the equatorial forests of central Africa, the cradle of humanity itself. Bonobos are great apes, along with chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas. Because we share so many characteristics with these simian species, some scientists contend that humans should be classified as apes too. Indigenous people who have dwelled among bonobos in the Congo forest have many legends about how bonobos and man were brothers in the distant past. They tell stories about how bonobos showed people what foods to eat in the forest, how a bonobo saved a man who needed help, how bonobos themselves are trying to become human.