Comments on: Are Bonobos Altruistic?

By: ponderingfool

ponderingfool — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:18:04 +0000

And now with this video on Mimi, how else would you interpret it except for altruism in bonobos?
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Grief? Maybe I have watched too many TV shows (you know the ones where someone dies & a someone close to the dead have to be pulled away from the body) and that is biasing my view but what I am reminded of is someone holding onto to someone who has passed and going through denial more than protection. Regardless it is amazing behavior to watch, very fascinating and cool.

By: LRU

LRU — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:15:48 +0000

The video is very moving to watch. I look forward to reading more posts and your book.

Also, your new book is listed as Brilliant and Highbrow on the Approval Matrix in New York Magazine’s June 7, 2010 edition. Bravo!

By: Brian Schmidt

Brian Schmidt — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:31:39 +0000

I’m a supporter of the Great Ape Project and the general idea that great apes are so cognitively developed that they should be treated similarly to beings that have some level of personal rights.

That said, I think this behavior is being over-interpreted. She’s defending her group member from a perceived attack, and I don’t think that’s altruistic. She’s being irrational in that the group member is dead, but I think her behavior might have been different if she had awoken to see some bonobo corpse she had never witnessed before in the yard, and then saw the keepers try to remove it.

It is moving to see how upset she and the other bonobos are, however.