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

By Frans de Waal
2019
336 pages / 10 hours and 38 minutes
Nonfiction

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The “mama” of this book’s title is the matriarch of a chimpanzee colony. Mama is dying. She receives a visit from Jan van Hooff, a biologist with whom she had formed a deep bond. At first Mama seems confused by Jan’s presence, but when she realizes who he is she reaches out to draw him close and stroke him. Go take a look. I will wait for you to get back. Made you cry didn't it?

Frans de Waal has spent his entire professional career attempting to understand the emotional life of animals – especially primates. This book represents a compilation of all he has learned, and it is utterly fascinating. Let me hit you with a couple of my favorite tidbits.

Being the alpha male in a chimpanzee colony is an extremely stressful experience, and these leaders clearly show the signs of stress. While physical strength is important, the alpha must also make alliances and negotiate. And although a female will not be the alpha, she may be the most influential member of the pack. Mama, for instance, had great negotiating skills.

Much of today’s testing with primates is done on computers. To get the best results, especially with the males, it actually helps to test more than one at the same time. So you put two males in front of two different monitors and see how quickly they can learn certain information. Whenever they get a right answer they are rewarded with a tasty treat. Additionally the computer makes one sound when they get an answer right and another when they make a mistake. So when they are being tested together they can tell how well they are doing compared to the other primate. Would it surprise you to find out that they are so competitive that they do not even have to be rewarded with the treat but will simply try to outperform the other male being tested. Does that sound human to you?

Or will it surprise you that a primate will be perfectly happy to receive a treat for performing a certain act unless another individual receives an even better treat for performing the same act? Would you believe that monkeys have a strong sense of fairness and display resentment when it’s been violated?

Of course we can be quick to make the accusation of anthropomorphizing. Since we have no way to get to the interior of the brain of this other species, we may interpret their behavior in light of our own interior states. But I seriously doubt that you will get to the end of this book without believing that our non-human co-creatures have rich and nuanced emotional lives. Besides primates, this also includes highly intelligent creatures like parrots and dogs.

I remember visiting a pet store where you could feed the smallest of the primate family. I held out a piece of food to the mouth of the tiny marmoset only to have him reach up his hand and take it from me in a chillingly human gesture. When you read this book you will find out a great deal about human and animal emotional life, and I assure you, you will come away caring much more about our fellow creatures. They are capable of great compassion and incredible cruelty. Very much like another species I know.