Famous Dutch primatologist Frans de Waal dies aged 75
He is the one who showed emotions and consciousness in animals.
The primatologist Frans de Waal died at the age of 75, this Sunday, March 17, 2024, from cancer.
Based in the United States, this Dutch scientist dedicated his life to observing monkeys, in their natural environment and in captivity.
Frans de Waal, in 2011. © CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED
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Biologist, ethologist, he was one of the most eminent primatologists.
Frans de Waal has dedicated decades to observing great apes in their environment and in captivity, recalls
Lucile Gimberg
, of RFI's environment department.
News of his death was made public this Sunday.
Recognized by Time
magazine
in 2007 as "
one of the 100 most influential people in the world
", he is the author of around fifteen works which have challenged the received idea according to which animals, and in particular primates would have no emotions or consciousness.
“
All primatologists will tell you about the first time they looked into the eyes of a chimpanzee or an orangutan
,” he confided to the newspaper
Le Monde
in 2022.
If you have a lot of contact with these individuals, you understand that the psychological difference between them and you is actually very small.
Frans de Waal made his first “
major discovery
” at Arnhem Zoo, in his country, in the Netherlands: chimpanzees reconcile after an argument, he notes.
The biologist will then spend his life studying the behavior of great apes, and telling in his books, translated all over the world, that they are cultural and gendered beings.
Like humans, bonobos have, for example, a sex and a gender, behaviors driven by biology, and others that they learn through contact with others.
Innate and acquired.
For the Dutch, laughter is not unique to man either.
“
If we tickle a chimpanzee, it makes a face and makes noises like when we laugh
,” he explained in 2018 on French television.
Laughter, anger, desire, empathy, a sense of justice too.
Mr. De Waal showed that animals have emotional intelligence.
And not just primates or pets.
For him, cows, pigs or chickens also have sensitive experiences.
Listen again to Frans de Waal: “The bonobo, God and us”
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