How do apes help each other feel calm? With hugs and kisses!

Have you ever been upset and someone has given you a hug? Or maybe you've been a little nervous about something, so you have held someone's hand?

Well, scientists have found that apes kind of do the same thing.

Researchers at Durham University studied how chimpanzees and bonobos use physical contact to reassure each other when things are a bit stressful.

They found that great apes hug, cuddle or kiss each other to keep each other calm.

"Before stressful events, they come together, they reassure each other, they touch each other, they hug each other," said Prof Zanna Clay, the professor who was involved in the study.

She described the behaviour as "a rallying cry" before a stressful event like how footballers often stand in a huddle before a big match.

"It's like a 'we' rather than a 'me'," she said.

So how did the scientists find this out?

They studied chimpanzees and bonobos living at two great ape sanctuaries.

The scientists designed an experiment to be like natural feeding in the wild using peanuts.

The apes were observed during the five minutes before the peanuts arrived, when they knew food was coming.

Researchers recorded when the apes would give reassuring physical contact, like touching, hugging or kissing.

The team found that those who touched and hugged were more likely to get the food and eat alongside each other peacefully.

Dr Jake Brooker explained:

"Comparing bonobos and chimpanzees - our two closest relatives - offers fascinating insight into the evolutionary roots of social behaviour and how they, and we, manage tension, competition and cooperation".