For chimpanzees, in contrast, we have dozens of cases of adult males killing other males, of males killing infants, and so on. As he explains, “The most important observation, which has remained unchanged over the last three decades, is that there are no confirmed reports of lethal aggression among bonobos. It’s always both.” De Waal emphasizes this “crucial” duality, which is apparently far less pronounced among the bonobos.īefore reading de Waal’s book, I’d had no idea that bonobos are significantly less violent than chimps. “Popular writers prefer to simplify things by describing the lives of chimpanzees either in Hobbesian terms, as nasty and brutish, or by stressing their friendly side, but in fact, it’s never one or the other. The point: chimps are far more complex than they’re often portrayed. These serve de Waal well as he provides “evidence for animal altruism” and “community concern,” all of which support the claims that “the building blocks of morality are older than humanity, and that we don’t need God to explain how we got to where we are today.” Again and again, de Waal chronicles instances of tenderness, selflessness and apparent empathy- even among those violence-prone chimps. place humans closer to chimpanzees (Ch) and bonobos (Bo) than to gorillas (Go) and orangutans (Or).”ĭe Waal’s book is also replete with vivid anecdotes and observations gleaned from the author’s many years of fieldwork and research. Its caption notes, “Until the 1960s, humans enjoyed their own branch on the evolutionary tree separate from the apes. Also helpful and interesting: an illustration that contrasts a pre-1960s evolutionary tree with one that is DNA-based. Moreover, it was useful to discover that ours is “a tiny family” compared, say, with the multiplicity of monkey and prosimian species. I appreciated the explanation of what de Waal calls “our immediate family”-the “great” apes: chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans, and the “lesser” apes: gibbons and siamangs. It was the first of the four that I was able to obtain, but more important, I expected to learn from the esteemed author of Chimpanzee Politics and Peacemaking Among Primates some basic facts about our simian relatives. Perhaps it isn’t surprising, then, that I began my reading journey through the world of “chimp lit” with de Waal’s book. Well into adulthood, I remain happily petless. No dogs, cats, horses or any other creatures for me. Unlike most of these books’ authors and characters, I’ve never been what one might call “an animal person.” My only childhood pets were a single goldfish (who survived, if memory serves, barely one week) and a parakeet whose care fell entirely to my mother. ![]() Together, the four books inspire reflections on the bonds and boundaries between and among humans and chimps. As we’ll see, some of the fictional humans-even those equipped with scientific expertise-take risks with chimpanzees that one cannot imagine de Waal or Speede sanctioning. But lest you think that publishers’ 2013 catalogs featured chimps in nonfiction only, last year also produced two noteworthy novels about chimpanzees: Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and Colin McAdam’s A Beautiful Truth. As de Waal observes early in his latest book, The Bonobo and the Atheist (the title notwithstanding, the book discusses chimps at least as much as it does bonobos-more about that later), “I feel very much at home with, but I never have any illusions about how ‘nice’ they are.” Equally comfortable with chimps and other primates and similarly cognizant of the dangers they can pose is Sherri Speede, whose Kindred Beings was released just a few months ago. Travis the chimp’s vicious actions surely wouldn’t surprise famed primatologist Franz de Waal. Efforts to give her new hands failed, and Nash lost her eyes as well. Her nose was almost gone, as was most of her scalp.” Remarkably, Nash survived the attack ultimately, she underwent a successful face transplant. Her upper jaw and eyelids were ripped off. If you’ve forgotten the specifics, The Woman Who Lost Her Face, a free e-book produced by NBC News, will remind you of the salient, savage details: adopted by Nash’s friend Sandra Herold fourteen years earlier and raised as if he had been human offspring, Travis the chimp “had torn off hands and mutilated her face. ![]() One February day in 2009, the fifty-five-year-old was attacked by a chimpanzee in suburban Stamford. Five years have passed since a Connecticut woman named Charla Nash suffered a gruesome and grievously life-altering experience.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |