Frans de Waal, 75; explored empathy and social learning among apes
Frans de Waal was just starting his career in primate research in the mid-1970s when he watched a male chimpanzee aggressively confront another at a zoo enclosure in the Netherlands. A while later, the chimp calmed down and held his palm up, a gesture of reconciliation. The two chimps hugged.
The moment sparked a lifetime exploration, probing the inner lives of chimps, apes, and other species for evidence of empathy, morality, and sentient awareness — traits long assumed to exist at high levels only in humans. In other words, Dr. de Waal often said, we are not so special.
“I consider human cognition as a variety of animal cognition,” said Dr. de Waal, who died March 14 at 75 at his home in Stone Mountain, Ga. “We are exceptionally smart, but we are not fundamentally different.”
For more than five decades, Dr. de Waal was distinguished for his wide-ranging curiosity — from studying acts of altruism in chimps to questions of fluid gender roles in primates — as well as his storytelling flair.
In more than a dozen books and frequent talks around the world, Dr. de Waal shared anecdotes and his deadpan humor (often mocking ideas of human exceptionalism) while bringing his work to a wide audience.
“I hate the so-called ‘ivory tower’ of science and feel that I have an obligation to communicate with the general public,” said Dr. de Waal, a longtime professor of psychobiology at Emory University in Atlanta and a research scientist at the school’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center (now the Emory National Primate Research Center.)
One of Dr. de Waal’s favorite tales was about Kuni, a bonobo, a primate found in central Africa. A bird slammed into the walls of her glass enclosure at a British zoo. Kuni gently picked up the stunned bird and took it to the top of the tallest tree in her habitat. She unfolded the bird’s wings and set it loose, like a toy airplane. The bird was still too disoriented, and Kuni watched over it for hours until it could fly away.
“[Kuni] tailored her assistance to the specific situation of an animal totally different from herself,” Dr. de Waal wrote in his 2005 book, “Our Inner Ape.”
In other books and lectures, he described problem-solving such as two chimpanzees joining forces to lug a heavy box or signs of apparent compassion with male chimps taking over care for the young when females were absent. He helped popularize the term “alpha male” in primate terms — not as a swaggering victor but as a leader who shows care and wise judgment for the entire group.
An example was how a group of bonobos helped an ailing newcomer named Kidogo adjust to a new zoo setting. “[They] took him by the hand and led him to where the keepers wanted him, thus showing they understood both the keepers’ intentions and Kidogo’s problem,” he wrote.
Dr. de Waal stressed that such behaviors should not be viewed as just simple versions of human interactions. Instead, he said, they should be regarded as a different, but equally rich, array of emotions and social learning that includes passing on knowledge and sharing a sense of community and generational continuity.
Franciscus Bernardus Maria de Waal was born on Oct. 29, 1948, in the southern Netherlands town of ’s-Hertogenbosch, also known as Den Bosch, and was raised in nearby Waalwijk. His father was a banker, and his mother was a homemaker.
He began his field studies with macaques, a small primate species found in pockets across Africa and Asia.
He received the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree at the University of Nijmegen in 1970 and a postgraduate degree at the University of Groningen in 1973. Two years later, he began researching chimpanzees at a zoo complex in Arnhem, Netherlands, and received a doctorate in biology from Utrecht University in 1977.
He moved to the United States in 1981 to take a position at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison and subsequently lectured at the University of Wisconsin. In 1991, he became a research professor at Emory and later was named director of its primate center.
In a 2016 interview on NPR's “The Diane Rehm Show,” Dr. de Waal told guest host Susan Page he believed that zoos, circuses, and other captive settings for animals should not be banned but monitored rigorously to ensure adequate care.
“I’m more of what they usually call an animal welfare-ist,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that we need to stop all these things, but we need to really closely pay attention on how we treat animals.”
Dr. de Waal’s wife of 44 years, Catherine Marin, confirmed the death and said the cause was stomach cancer. Survivors also include five brothers.