Empathy, cooperation, fairness, reciprocity, in one word: ethics. Do you think that all this is unique to the human race? Of course not. Contrary to what philosophy and religion have taught us, biology provides the answer: we share most of the “human” abilities with animals, and the Dutchman Frans de Waal has been proving this for decades with his research and books. He is considered the leading primatologist in the world. He mainly studies the societies of chimpanzees, bonobos and capuchins. It was he who coined the terms alpha male and alpha female. He was born in the Netherlands in 1948, studied zoology and ethology, and since 1981 lives in the USA. He is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Emory University and director of the Center for Living Connections at the Yerkes Mammal Primate Center in Atlanta. “I’m just an observer,” he tells me on the other end of the phone line. “And, in fact, through the behavior of animals, I explore human nature…”

“Our biggest and perhaps only significant difference is our own language, the symbolic system that we humans are taught, not our innate ability to speak. Otherwise, the emotions we experience, how we express them with our face and body, how we deal with various problems in our environment, how we see ourselves and other members of the society to which we belong – in all this the similarity is enormous. . There are also their undeniable mental abilities: animals have some degree of self-awareness, they have episodic memory, i.e. they remember past events and can think about the future and plan their actions. Cases have been recorded of chimpanzees picking up a tool in the forest and walking for miles, holding it in their hands or in their mouths, until they get to the point where they want to use it to satisfy some need. Also, chimpanzees, as well as bonobos, such as elephants, recognize themselves in the mirror, an ability that humans acquire after the age of twenty months.

We are animals too. We have exactly the same organs: heart, lungs, liver. Our brain, of course, is larger than that of a chimpanzee, but it has the same structure. For two thousand years, philosophy and religion have convinced us that people are God’s chosen ones, the rulers of the planet, that we have the right to treat animals the way they serve us. We have already begun to pay for our arrogance with the climate crisis. But the pandemic should shake us too. This virus has turned everything upside down and proved how powerless we really are. Let’s not fantasize about our imaginary superiority and listen to biology, proving that we are a link in the chain of nature and nothing more.

– Not a priori negative. There are good ones and bad ones. In any case, the planet has become an inhospitable “home” for many species, especially primates. Consider that in Borneo, one of only two places in the world where orangutans live in the wild, more than 100,000 orangutans have been lost in the past twenty years, either through human error or due to deforestation to make way for plantations. Almost half of their population, that is, has already disappeared. Today, an orangutan is better off living in a zoo than in Borneo. So let’s make sure that zoos get better, that animals have enough space and that all conditions are created for their well-being.

Animals are very smart. We do not always have the intelligence to ascertain the various forms of their intelligence.

– I do not know the exact circumstances and cannot judge from a distance. It’s sad to lose an animal in this way. However, a chimpanzee, especially an alpha male, can become very dangerous to humans.

– There are many good things, how to fit them into the conversation? The bad news is that many people still resent being compared to animals. You spoil their idealized image of the human species.

– I generally keep my distance from the animals I work with, I do not want to become part of their social life, because this will undermine the objectivity of scientific observation. I made two exceptions. I became very attached to Luit, the alpha male. He was an excellent leader: fair, ensured calm and peace in his group. Killed by two other men. He got cold in my hands. And I always remember my mother with warmth, a unique creature. She was the alpha female at the Burgers Zoo in Arnhem, Holland for forty years, even when she became blind and could no longer walk…

– I’m not sure. Most “dominant males” are very harsh, aggressive and cruel. I am well aware of the power plays in chimpanzee society. I see them in our own society, even in the universities. I have been a teacher for over four decades. I watch with interest how my colleagues try to impose themselves on each other, as chimpanzees do. I watch but don’t participate…

They are not interested in the human world

– You often say that we are not smart enough to understand how smart animals are. What do you mean;

I will answer you with two examples. Many years ago, during an experiment, chimpanzees were given chopsticks so they could bring food closer to their cage. And they did. That is, they used them as tools.

Elephants didn’t do the same, so we came to the conclusion that they don’t have the ability to use tools.

Today, after a series of new experiments, we know that elephants have a proboscis that does not look like our own hand.

They use it for their sense of smell. So they didn’t grab the reeds, because that way they wouldn’t be able to smell the food.

But when food was placed on very high places that they could not reach, and they were given wooden boxes, they put them under the “bait” and made steps to get to it. So the animals are very intelligent.

We do not always have the intelligence to ascertain the various forms of their intelligence.

– Is there a moral dimension in the animal world?

– Given that human morality does not exist without empathy, that is, the ability to understand the feelings of another and emotionally influence his situation, yes, many species have a kind of morality, especially primates: they obey the rules, they react in injustice, they act as peacekeepers in cases of some dispute in their group, console others.
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How do animals see us?

“Apart from those that live in cities, are familiar with our presence and interact with us – especially with domestic animals – other animals in nature are not interesting to people. Unless they feel threatened by him, which, of course, often happens.