Experts now think the apes may relate to each other in very human ways

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703230161mar23,0,2943285.story

Empathy for one's fellow chimp

Experts now think the apes may relate to each other in very human ways

By Jeremy Manier
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 23, 2007

If chimpanzees truly followed what humans call "the law of the jungle," a mentally disabled chimp named Knuckles would never stand a chance.

Yet Knuckles has found acceptance and perhaps even sympathy from his fellow chimps in Florida, making him an unlikely star of Lincoln Park Zoo's international Mind of the Chimpanzee conference. snip

Normally, older chimps would put on intimidating displays with a juvenile male such as Knuckles, screaming, grabbing and biting the youngster to put him in his place, said Devyn Carter, who has studied Knuckles and is presenting his research at the Lincoln Park Zoo conference. But even the dominant alpha male tolerates and gently grooms Knuckles.

"To my knowledge he's never received a scratch," said Carter, a research assistant at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center. "They seem to sense somehow that he's different."

[Bonobo]

1. We Bonobos are offended by that remark.

We're MUCH better to each other than humans are.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

2. Well, we've known this for a long time.

[Javaman]

20. You're mistaking empathy with entropy. LOL nt

[SutaUvaca]

3. Check out the 1991 TV movie, "People of the Forest"

written by Jane Goodall and narrated by Donald Sutherland.
It's a 20 year observation of a tribe of chimpanzees in
Tanzania's Gombe nat'l Park area.

The treatment by the tribe of an injured male is not just kind, but obvious caretaking.

[genie_weenie]

4. NEVER!!!

EVIL-UTION LEADS TO THE DU!!!

RAWR! GRRRRR! OOOOH-OOOOOH!

:evilgrin:

[misanthrope]

5. A bit of anthropomorphism in the very title...

...of this article. Other primates acting in "human ways?" Au contraire. It would only mean we are hardly alone in the empathy department, that we are simply being social animals when displaying kindness toward others. It's something so innate, its absence should evidently be inexcusable.

If anything, other primates displaying "human" traits would mean their behavior had reached heretofore unseen levels of destruction and violence.

[katsy]

7. First: I like your name.

Second: "If anything, other primates displaying "human" traits would mean their behavior had reached heretofore unseen levels of destruction and violence." :thumbsup:


You have that right,

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

8. Are you kidding me?

"other primates displaying 'human' traits would mean their behavior had reached heretofore unseen levels of destruction and violence."

Male primates can be appallingly violent. Give 'em some guns and there may be none left.

Rape, abuse, and killing is common in various primate communities. In fact, it is downright frightening to see a group of male Chimps when female Chimps are ready to mate. It really can be brutal (especially for the female).

[hlthe2b]

11. We share violent traits... but for them to assume OUR level...

they'd have to learn to develop WMD, nuclear bombs, and the like. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) this is ONE area, where mankind alone excels.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

12. But can't we play the game in the other direction?

For them to assume OUR level of empathy, they'd have to learn to develop orphanages, take in other hurt animals, rescue dogs from fires even at the expense of their own lives, etc.

Your logic is a little faulty. The fact is, they can't develop these horrific means of destruction. It's not a moral choice that they don't; they have not the ability. If they did, then I fear for the primate population (just as I fear for ours). And they same could go in the other direction: if they had the ability to create orphanages, I'm sure they would.

There is no doubt we share many of the same violent/empathetic tendencies. And I really don't feel like arguing one primate is more violent/empathetic than another. But to say extreme violence is a predominantly a human-primate trait is erroneous, just as erroneous as it is to say that humans have the market cornered in empathy (dear God, haven't we all see the Koko and her kitten video?).

I was simply trying to step in and provide a little remedy to this primate romanticism.

So i don't really disagree with the point of your post.

[hlthe2b]

10. Humans are merely another species of animal....

It is truly time for our species to (as a whole), GET OFF OUR COLLECTIVE HIGH HORSE.

Other species also have exceptional abilities-- that we are only starting to understand.

[WinkyDink]

17. I know! Every. single. sense. There are other animals with far superior powers.

Heck, even the lowly planaria can regenerate itself, we all recall from science class.

[WinkyDink]

15. Totally agree. If only humans were more ape-like.

[hlthe2b]

6. This really does not surprise me, but it also

continues to devastate me that so many "humans" refuse to acknowledge that non-human primates and other animals have both complex patterns of thinking and FEELING. They have both intellectual and emotional intelligence.

We are just chipping away at the edges of knowledge to understand these and other animal species... Those of us who argue this are often dismissed as "dewy eyed" animal lovers who wish to anthropomorphize.

[woo me with science]

9. These stories always amaze me.

It seems like every week we get a new story about astonished scientists who discover that animals have feelings or intelligence or empathy. I wonder when they will quit being so astonished.

[Bill McBlueState]

13. Is astonishment a bad thing?

The cool thing about scientific studies is that they allow us to move from guesses ("I bet animals are smarter than we think") to detailed understanding based on controlled observations:

Matsuzawa's most remarkable footage is of a 5-year-old captive chimp male named Ayumu, who seems capable of memory feats far beyond what most people could do.

In one task, Ayumu sees a sequence of numbers from one to nine scattered randomly on a computer screen. The numbers appear for less than a second, barely enough time to see them all, before being replaced by nine white squares. Ayumu's job is to remember where the hidden numbers were, and to touch their squares in sequence from one to nine.

He succeeds immediately, almost every time, touching the squares casually but quickly. It is a task that looks nearly impossible, and Matsuzawa's video shows human subjects barely passing the test with just four or five numbers. Nine numbers are too much for their brains to handle. "No graduate student of Kyoto University can do it," Matsuzawa said.

That's pretty astonishing, and I don't think we should fault the researcher for being more astonished than you are.

[woo me with science]

16. I guess you are right.

I am all for the research--especially since we clearly need it to convince those who DON'T spend enough time with animals to see it intuitively. I just wish it were more of a commonly accepted truth that animals have these traits.

[The2ndWheel]

19. "based on controlled observations"

Maybe that's where the astonishment comes from. We've separated ourselves so much with an observer/observed, controller/controlled type of setup, that our connections to life are fading. Now that these controlled observations have taken place, we'll need to know why X and Y happened, and we'll further isolate ourselves. Although that seems to be the way our species got to the top, since that seems to be the only way we're able to survive.

[TahitiNut]

18. As someone who "made friends" with a wild dolphin, amazement is a normal reaction.

As an animal-lover, I've never been a person to diminish the innate abilities of other animals. At the same time, the one-on-one 'relationship' with a wild dolphin - swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving - overwhelmed me. Try as I might, no words I've found can express the sense of a "close encounter of the third kind." Likewise, no amount of cynicism can ever diminsh that experience.

[lectrobyte]

14. We are all just primates.