Dutch - Scientist | October 29, 1948 -
We need to separate the process of evolution - which is, indeed, a self-serving process - and the actual motivations of animals.
Frans de Waal
ProcessEvolutionAnimalsNeedWhich
Although elephants are far more distantly related to us than the great apes, they seem to have evolved similar social and cognitive capacities.
GreatMoreSeemSocialUsCognitive
Male bonobos really don't fit the human male ideal.
HumanIdealFitReallyMale
Exclusive homosexuality is not very common in nature.
NatureCommonHomosexualityExclusive
A chimpanzee who is really gearing up for a fight doesn't waste time with gestures but just goes ahead and attacks.
TimeFightAheadWaste TimeUpJust
One thing bothered me as a student. In the 1960s, human behavior was totally off limits for the biologist. There was animal behavior, then there was a long time nothing, after which came human behavior as a totally separate category best left to a different group of scientists.
TimeBestAnimalMeLimitsBehavior
Experiments with animals have long been handicapped by our anthropocentric attitude: We often test them in ways that work fine with humans but not so well with other species.
WorkAttitudeLongAnimalsTestOur
It is well known that apes in the wild offer spontaneous assistance to each other, defending against leopards, say, or consoling distressed companions with tender embraces.
SayWildSpontaneousAgainstWell
I was born in Den Bosch, where the painter Hieronymus Bosch named himself after. And so I've always been very fond of this painter who lived and worked in the 15th century.
BornAlwaysLivedWhereBeenWho
Deep down, creationists realize they will never win factual arguments with science. This is why they have construed their own science-like universe, known as Intelligent Design, and eagerly jump on every tidbit of information that seems to go their way.
ScienceWinDeepDesignUniverseGo
Future benefits rarely figure in the minds of animals.
FutureAnimalsMindsBenefitsFigure
The whole reason people fill their homes with furry carnivores and not with, say, iguanas and turtles, is because mammals offer something no reptile ever will. They give affection, they want affection, and respond to our emotions the way we do to theirs.
PeopleEmotionsSayWantWillWay
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