Frans De Waal was enlightening in many ways, but I think the concept that will stuck forever with me is his criticism of the general attitude of comparing humans to chimps, using them as an evolutionary explanation for our violent hierarchical social structure. De Waal stressed how we share the same amount of genes with Bonobos, 'The Forgotten Ape', and there's no evolutionary reason why we couldn't have been more Bonobos, instead of Chimps: a 'make-love-not-war' ape. Imagine that.
I spent yesterday in shock and grief over the death of primatologist and animal-behavior scientist Frans de Waal, and that continues today. Here are only some of his books that revolutionized my thinking, research, and teaching about animal cognition and emotion. #FransDeWaal#animals#ethology#chimpanzees#animalbehavior#animalcognition#books
Primatologist Frans de Waal has passed away and the world is much poorer from it 😔 #FransDeWaal. You may have seen that video of a capuchin monkey upset about not being rewarded at the same level as his neighbor for the same task, that was part of his Ted talk : https://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_moral_behavior_in_animals
A man who changed the way we look at animals, and allowed animal behaviour scientists to look at animals as richly emotional and much closer to humans than we care to admit. Rest in peace, Frans de Waal.