Our Inner Ape

What does the phrase “our inner ape” bring to mind? Do you think of selfish behavior, acts of unruly, uninhibited behavior and acts of aggression, or do you think of compassion, kindness and empathy? Chances are you think of the former. We tend to see our inner ape as our savage, primitive instincts that need to be controlled by our civilized and uniquely human morality and empathy.

Indeed, our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees can be extremely aggressive. Male chimps vehemently fight for dominance within their groups and they are known to go on patrols on the borders between different communities in search of unsuspecting chimps from another group who will be lucky to escape unharmed. In chimpanzee politics Dutch Primatologist Frans de Waal tells the story of three rival chimps at Burger's Zoo in Arnhem: Nikkie, Yeroen and Luit. The three males had been left together in the night cages and this became fatal for Luit. Each of the males had been the dominant male for a while and at the time it was Luit who was in charge. Before this, Yeroen, the oldest of the three, had helped Nikkie become the dominant male after he himself had lost the position to Luit. Recently the partnership between Nikkie and Yeroen had broken down and Luit, the strongest of the three, naturally regained the top spot. This night Nikkie and Yeroen set out to take down Luit. In a brutal two-on-one battle Luit became seriously injured. The next morning he was found in a pool of blood missing fingers, toes and even his testicles. He did not survive this onslaught.

Yet, despite all the stories of chimp aggression we should not forget that they have a softer side and that they also know compassion and empathy. This other side of our ape relatives is emphasized by De Waal in his book our inner ape.

Having decades of experience working with chimps and bonobos, our closest relatives, De Waal sees the softer side of these apes. He argues that the phrase “our inner ape” can just as easily be applied to empathy and compassion as to power and aggression. In his book, appropriately called “our inner ape” he provides many examples of this human-like soft side of the apes. Here are two striking examples provided by De Waal. First, there's a bonobo called Kuni who tried to comfort a starling after it flew against the glass of her enclosure. She tried to help the bird by first setting it on its feet and then lifting it in the air and releasing it to let it fly. When this failed she climbed a tree and released it from there. Again, without success. Kuni then stood watch over the bird for a while, protecting it from any harm. Finally, the bird had recovered enough to fly away. Then there's Binti who helped a three-year-old boy who had somehow fallen amongst the gorilla's at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. I can imagine the distressed parents as they await the fate of their child at the hands of these beasts. Well, Binti went to the boy and carried him to safety. After gently patting the boy on the back a few times she brought the boy to the zoo staff.



These examples are somewhat unusual as they demonstrate empathy towards members of other species, but apes naturally show empathy towards one another just as easily. They comfort each other when they are in distress, spend a great deal of time bonding with each other by grooming or even sexual acts (the bonobos). After fights there's often reconciliation between the apes. Sometimes other apes mediate when the two hot-heads don't immediately make up after a fight. According to De Waal a female chimp will go to one of the trouble-makers and start grooming him. Then, she will slowly go towards the other culprit with the groomed male following her, sometimes after some encouragement from the female chimp. She will then groom the other male and after a while she moves away, leaving the two aggressors together. The males will start grooming each other, which means that the peace is restored.

There is no doubt that De Waal is correct in stating that our kind, empathic, social side has an evolutionary history taking us back many millions of years, just like our cruel, aggressive, egoistic side. When we think of “our inner ape” perhaps we could try to give our pre-human ancestors a little more credit.