book review: bonobo. the forgotten ape. by frans de waal and frans lanting. university of california...

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International Journal of Primatology, Vol. 18, No. 5, 1997 Book Review Bonobo. The Forgotten Ape. By Frans de Waal and Frans Lanting. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997, xvi + 210 pp., $39.95 (cloth). Perhaps a professional monograph can be—or really should be—ex- citing, amusing, and beautiful? Bonobo is. It is also a review of literature published and unpublished, with as near accuracy in presenting de Waal's own results and the results of others as any professional can hope. Of course the bonobo (Pan paniscus) is worth a coffee-table book. Indeed, any collection of Lanting's photographs is worth major publication. Now the team of Frans and Frans has done justice to bonobos from all points of view: scientific, artistic, and what we might as well call human interest, taking humans as one member of the pongid-hominid clade. de Waal deals with most aspects of bonobo behavior. First there is phylogeny, and the question of how to relate the very different behavior of the recently diverged chimpanzee and bonobo to each other, to Aus- tralopithecus, and to ourselves. There is a short description of bonobo intelligence and the work of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. Then the book moves to Wamba and Lomako, and the ecology and social structure of wild bonobos, with suitable cautions about the possible influence of sugarcane provisioning increasing the cohesiveness of social groups. Bonobo female dominance over males enters here, and the agreed roles of the two sexes. In "Apes from Venus" we are treated to full frontal bonobo sex, and its role as a social lubricant—How could a species have so much fun resolving tensions! Or is it just plain having fun? The next chapters, on "Bonobos and Us," and "Sensitivity," put together the previous sections to explore the mental life of an animal whose specialty is social awareness. And finally, there is an epilogue on conservation and the future, which become more acutely relevant than ever with the war and new government of the Demo- cratic Republic of Congo. These bald contents do not give the flavor of the whole, de Waal quotes a large number of experiments, observations, and carefully assem- 831 0164-0291/97/1000-0831$12.50/0 C 1997 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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International Journal of Primatology, Vol. 18, No. 5, 1997

Book Review

Bonobo. The Forgotten Ape. By Frans de Waal and Frans Lanting.University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997, xvi + 210 pp., $39.95(cloth).

Perhaps a professional monograph can be—or really should be—ex-citing, amusing, and beautiful? Bonobo is. It is also a review of literaturepublished and unpublished, with as near accuracy in presenting de Waal'sown results and the results of others as any professional can hope. Ofcourse the bonobo (Pan paniscus) is worth a coffee-table book. Indeed,any collection of Lanting's photographs is worth major publication. Nowthe team of Frans and Frans has done justice to bonobos from all pointsof view: scientific, artistic, and what we might as well call human interest,taking humans as one member of the pongid-hominid clade.

de Waal deals with most aspects of bonobo behavior. First there isphylogeny, and the question of how to relate the very different behaviorof the recently diverged chimpanzee and bonobo to each other, to Aus-tralopithecus, and to ourselves. There is a short description of bonobointelligence and the work of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. Then the book movesto Wamba and Lomako, and the ecology and social structure of wildbonobos, with suitable cautions about the possible influence of sugarcaneprovisioning increasing the cohesiveness of social groups. Bonobo femaledominance over males enters here, and the agreed roles of the two sexes.In "Apes from Venus" we are treated to full frontal bonobo sex, and itsrole as a social lubricant—How could a species have so much fun resolvingtensions! Or is it just plain having fun? The next chapters, on "Bonobosand Us," and "Sensitivity," put together the previous sections to explorethe mental life of an animal whose specialty is social awareness. And finally,there is an epilogue on conservation and the future, which become moreacutely relevant than ever with the war and new government of the Demo-cratic Republic of Congo.

These bald contents do not give the flavor of the whole, de Waalquotes a large number of experiments, observations, and carefully assem-

831

0164-0291/97/1000-0831$12.50/0 C 1997 Plenum Publishing Corporation

832 Book Review

bled anecdotes. He uses his limpid prose style, however, to press the pointthat bonobos share human feelings and some aspects of human intelligence:not, probably, our propensity for tool use, which seems more developed inchimpanzees; definitely, though, our attention to others, our urge to com-municate and to understand other's communicat ion—the necessaryprecursor to language—and our empathy with others' emotions. Every oneof Lanting's evocative photographs makes the same point, starting with thecover photo, which should, like Rodin's statue, be called The Thinker. Theplea for conservation is all the stronger: How can we deny our own humanempathy for creatures like these?

Readers will make their own judgments of findings well explained, orof the few items missed. Let me, instead, quote one anecdote.

One day, Kuni [a 7-year-old female at Twyecross Zoo] captured a starling. Out offear that she might molest the stunned bird, which appeared undamaged, the keeperurged the ape to let it go. Perhaps because of this encouragement, Kuni took thebird outside and gently set it onto its feet, the right way up . . . . When it didn'tmove, Kuni threw it a little way, but it just fluttered. Not satisfied, Kuni picked upthe starling with one hand and climbed to the highest point of the highest Irec,where she wrapped both legs around the trunk, so that she had both hands freeto hold the bird. She then carefully unfolded its wings and spread them wide open,one wing in each hand, before throwing the bird as hard as she could towards thebarrier of the enclosure. Unfortunately, it fell short and landed on the bank of themoat, where Kuni guarded it for a long time against a curious juvenile. By the endof the day the bird was gone without trace or feather. It is assumed that, recoveredfrom its shock, it had flown away.

Hildegard of Bingen, in the 12th century, wrote of the ape, "When heobserves a bird in flight, he raises himself and leaps and tries to fly." No-one has apparently repeated this observation unless we include humansamong the apes. Bonobo instead brings us eye to eye with an ape whoknows that a bird should fly and who tries, from whatever motives, to help.

Alison JollyDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyPrinceton UniversityPrinceton, New Jersey 08544-1003