Recent work on the bonobo challenges this assumption, however. However, when bonobos were studied by scientists, they produced a distinct shock, for the creatures were found to have staggering sexual appetites. As a consequence, they have been depicted as lustful satyrs who will have sex at the drop of a hat - or a banana, an apple, or anything else that succumbs to the effects of gravity. And it is true they have a healthy urge to have sex. On the other hand, it should be added that the average copulation lasts only 13 seconds.
Sex is used as a substitute for aggression, as a means of defusing tension.
For example, after a female hits a juvenile, the latter's mother may lunge at the aggressor, an action immediately followed by genital rubbing between the two adults. And in this non-violent society, because they are freed from the fear of male aggression, females control food resources and dominate the males. They also thoroughly upset the idea that sex is solely intended for procreation. However, similarities that we have with bonobos, or for that matter chimpanzees, are not sufficient on their own to explain every aspect of human evolution, De Waal acknowledges. Special factors have produced unique human characteristics, particularly the nuclear family in which males and females share the raising of offspring.