The Special Species

I'm a big fan of Frans DeWaal and his works on chimps and bonobos. I dare you to read Chimpanzee Politics and not think of everything going on now in DC. I've always had a hard time with the idea that animals have no souls, can't communicate, don't think, yada, yada, an even harder time with the ying-yangs with the authorities who have proclaimed these things with certainty. We know so little about so much, but that's never stopped us from putting ourselves at the center of everything. Those chickens are coming home to roost in so many ways, but one of the most interesting and rewarding is what real authorities like DeWaal are finding out about chimps and their proximity to us. Not that they're really about to type the works of Shakespeare, but the distance keeps getting shorter and shorter. As proof, read this. Then go find all of DeWaal you can read in a good sitting.