Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves

by Frans de Waal

Naturally, bonobos have become popular among feminists, who have honored them in book dedications, such as Alice Walker thanking Life for their existence. Whereas chimpanzees resolve sexual issues with power, bonobos resolve power issues with sex. Moreover, they have sex in all possible combinations, including members of the same sex. Scientists and journalists have pushed back, though, feeling that the bonobo is just too good to be true. Could this make-love-not-war species be a “politically correct” concoction, a made-up ape to satisfy the liberal left? One journalist traveled all the way to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in an attempt to prove that bonobos aren’t nearly as pacific as they have been made out to be. All he came back with, however, was the story of a bonobo chasing a duiker. The little antelope escaped safely, but the journalist felt the need to treat his readers to a ghastly account of the way the ape might have killed and devoured it. None of this had much to do with the issue at hand, however, because predation is not aggression. Predation is driven by hunger, not competition.