But De Walle did not follow that path. He spent the next 45 years trying to answer the questions of why that murder happened and under what circumstances something completely different could have happened instead.
reconcile
His own research has primarily focused on captive populations, which is not the norm. Jane Goodall, another great primatologist of our time, studied exclusively wild chimpanzees.
But the main reason De Waal went to Emory was because it had a large chimpanzee community to roam around for a long time. His office was built over their territory, with a viewing window sticking out, so he could observe them every day without disturbing them.
De Waal spent years thinking about two related questions. The first question was why chimpanzees and bonobos are so different. Another question is why did he kill the two chimpanzees Alpha at Arnhem Zoo?
De Waal wrote a book about primate morality. He showed that when a dominant male humiliates another male, the chimpanzees watching come and comfort the loser.
He showed how some men and many women intervene in battles to protect the weaker side. And he showed that two males who had quarreled often quickly came together to comfort each other and make up. He wrote a book about how scientists have consistently underestimated the intelligence of various animals.
stronger
Time and time again, he takes up and destroys arguments that claim there are some differences between humans and other primates. He closed the gap between us and them and showed us sisters and brothers.
His research was particularly important because by exploring the evolutionary uses of morality, kindness, and equality in primate societies, it allowed scientists to understand them more clearly in human evolution.
mom's last hug A beautiful book about animal emotions. De Waal shows how they can feel „love, hate, fear, shame, guilt, joy, disgust, and empathy.“ And, of course, sadness.
The book's name comes from a short video of one of the chimpanzees DeWall studied in the 1970s. Her scientists call her Mama. She is 59 years old. Now she refuses all food and lies on her deathbed.
Biologist Jan van Hoog, who has known Mom for more than 40 years, approaches her with caution. He never touched her. Both captive and wild adult chimpanzees are dangerous, being much stronger than us and capable of killing or injuring humans in seconds.
competition
Van Hogue speaks quietly to her mother and gently strokes her. Suddenly she realized it was him, her eyes opened and they hugged each other. Of course, mom can hug Van Hogue. Because she has been hugging other chimpanzees ever since she was born. watch video here.
De Waal's understanding of primates was deeply influenced by research he conducted on a captive bonobo colony at the San Diego Zoo in the 1980s. He was one of the first scientists to report on bonobos, long before they became popular.
Bonobos are closely related to chimpanzees. They look the same, eat the same food, move the same, and sing the same.
However, the most dominant animal in a bonobo group is always the female. As is now well known, bonobos come in all kinds of sexes: female and female, female and male, male and male, young and old. And they consistently use sex to stop fights.
De Waal eventually came up with an idea that connected his two basic questions. He has seen a lot of love, a lot of comfort, empathy for the weak, sympathy for the defeated, and feelings of morality. However, there is also a lot of competition and cruelty.
![Why men?](https://theecologist.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/9781805260165_0.jpg)
![Why men?](https://theecologist.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/9781805260165_0.jpg)
evolution
De Waal got the idea from the work of Takayoshi Kano and Ken Furuichi, who used bonobos in fields. They realized that one of the differences between bonobos and chimpanzees is that bonobos live south of the Congo River and chimpanzees live north.
And fruit was more abundant in bonobo territory. This means bonobo communities typically act in unison. In contrast, chimpanzees had to divide into small, constantly changing groups.
Another thing de Waal has seen through his office window over the years is that when a fight breaks out between dominant male chimpanzees, the female and the other male often intervene to create peace. was.
That's when de Waal remembered that terrifying night in Arnhem. What the humans did was to arbitrarily put the top three males in cages. That meant no other chimpanzees could intervene that night, and only that night.
And he thought that perhaps bonobos had evolved to be more peaceful because entire groups and females could work together to dominate bullies over many generations. And perhaps something similar happened in human evolution, he thought.
these authors
Nancy Lindisfarne writes a photographic ethnography of pastoralist groups in Afghanistan in the 1970s. Jonathan Neal is writing a book about climate change in Afghanistan. They blog at his annebonnypirate.org and can be reached at lindisfarne.neale@gmail.com.
For more information on de Waal's research and human evolution, read Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neal's latest book, 'Why men? Human history of violence and inequality. Watch this nice short video where de Waal describes a classic experiment on strong emotions. Capuchin monkeys are almost equal.