- Published: 05/03/2020
- ISBN: 9781783784110
- Granta Books
- 348 pages
Mama’s Last Hug
Frans de Waal
Mama’s Last Hug opens with the moving farewell between Mama, a dying chimpanzee matriarch, and her human friend, a professor who inspired the author’s work. Their parting, the video of which has been watched by millions online, is not only a window into the deep bonds they shared, but into the remarkable emotional capacities of animals.
In this groundbreaking and entertaining book, primatologist Frans de Waal draws on his renowned studies of the social and emotional lives of chimpanzees, bonobos and other primates, and personal encounters with many other species, to illuminate new ideas and findings about animal emotions: joy, grief, shame, love, pain and happiness.
Exploring the facial expressions of animals, human and animal politics, and animal consciousness, de Waal illustrates how profoundly we have underestimated animals’ emotional experiences. He argues that emotions occupy a far more significant place in the way we organise our societies than a more rationalist approach would advocate. His radical proposal is that emotions are like organs: humans haven’t a single organ that other animals don’t have, and the same can be said of our emotions.
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Scientifically enlightening... [de Waal's] writing and science are infectiously good
Adam Rutherford, Guardian
Entertaining, convincing and moving
Irish Times
[De Waal] makes an excellent case for the hypothesis that there is no emotion in our human psyche that we don't see in our closest relatives - and, in fact, in intelligent animals of all kinds, especially mammals and large-brained birds ... A convincing book, and De Waal [is] an excellent observer of primate behaviour [and] immensely knowledgeable... a window into chimps' lives, and a looking glass for our own
Tom Chivers, The Times
From the Same Author
Frans de Waal on Granta.com
Essays & Memoir | Granta Books
Mama’s Last Hug
Frans de Waal
‘Watching behaviour comes naturally to me, so much so that I may be overdoing it.’