The Chronicle

Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: News
Last update: 11/9/07 at 6:51 AM EST

Media Credit: HEATHER GUO Primotologist Frans de Waal was the second speaker in the Provost's Lecture Series "On Being Human."

It is seldom that Duke students feel like "monkeying" around late on a Thursday afternoon, but for Frans de Waal, they were willing to make an exception.

As the second speaker in the third annual Provost's Lecture Series-titled "On Being Human"-the world-renowned primatologist, psychologist and ethologist delighted a packed auditorium in the Biological Sciences Building on the intricacies of "Our Inner Ape."

De Waal is most famous for his work on primate behavior. His studies on dominance, cooperation, inequity aversion and food sharing have attracted worldwide attention from colleagues in the field.

Professor Emeritus of Biology Peter Klopfer said he has been a longtime admirer of de Waal's work.

"He is certainly one of the most prominent students of animal behavior and its evolution that one could find," Klopfer said. "He's also done work that is highly imaginable and easily understood. [De Waal] is a first rate lecturer."

A robust Dutchman with a bristly mustache, de Waal held his audience-which consisted of professors, students and guests from Emory University, where de Waal teaches-captive for an hour and a half during which he pontificated on his current work highlighting the similarities between ape and man.

Beginning his address by discussing the "politics" of chimpanzees, de Waal drew parallels between primate dominance and human behavior.

"We are extremely sensitive to dominance relationships between people," de Waal said.

He showed various photographs of famous prominent political figures in commanding postures to demonstrate his point, even dropping a few wise-cracks about President George W. Bush to receptive applause and laughter.

"We are just as obsessed as the chimpanzees with power games," he said.

One of most recent projects that de Waal shared with his audience was his current work with a mirror and an elephant named "Happy."

"Elephants have high levels of empathy and large brains so we thought they would be a good candidate," he said.

By painting an "X" above one of the elephant's eyes and then placing it in front of an "elephant-proof mirror," a large unbreakable mirror, de Waal said he observed the elephant pacing back and forth and repeatedly trying to brush the mark off with its trunk-a sign of self-recognition.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools