Knuckels has cerebral palsy. He’s the chimp clowning around in this photo, the one on top. The disability makes him an easy target, but scientists have never seen any fellow apes taking advantage of him. That’s pretty humane of them.
Some evolutionary psychologists have sought false connections between apes and human behavior. One psychologist, for example, found “evidence” that female monkeys have a fondness for pots and pans.(Chimps may use stones to crack open nuts, but do they have an innate grasp on the concept of stove-top cooking?) However, this New York Times story points out strikingly humane behavior that primatologists have noticed over the years of close observation:
•Chimps mourn. One chimp mom carried her her young daughter’s corpse on her back for a few days.
•After fights between two chimps, scientists have seen other chimps consoling the loser and otherwise trying to restore peace.
•Chimps outperformed humans in some memory tasks.
For more on apes, check out the Great Ape Project, which seeks to extend basic human rights to chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans. That includes “the right to life, the freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and protection from torture.” In their eyes, it may be narrow-minded of me just to call chimpanzees “humane.” However provocative, their concept makes more sense now than ever, with some great ape species on the verge of extinction, such as orangutans, known in Southeast Asia as “the people of the forest.”
