Check your subscription status, update your details and more. Primatologist Frans de Waal’s final book is a rich mix of memoir and science Do non-human animals have inner lives? Definitely, argued the late primatologist Frans de Waal, and he spent his life proving it.
Michael Marshall enjoys his last book, Minds I've Met Close encounter: Frans de Waal and a chimpanzee at the Barcelona Zoo _**Minds I’ve Met**__Frans de Waal, Granta (UK); W. Norton (US)_ When primatologist Frans de Waal died in 2024, he left a huge scientific legacy. His work was a fixture in this magazine for decades, and he wrote a small library of books, including _The Age of Empathy_, _Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are_? and _Mama’s Last Hug_.
Many of de Waal’s ideas were controversial, but are now so widely accepted we often treat them as given. For instance, the idea that some animals engage in social manoeuvring can be traced to his foundational _Chimpanzee Politics_, published in 1982. Then there are his ideas about bonobos, the apes that, along with chimps, are our closest living relatives.
They live in female-dominated societies, and often use sex, not violence, to resolve conflict – something de Waal promoted vigorously in _Bonobo: The forgotten ape_. Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with _New Scientist_ events and special offers. #### Comment ### These two new sci-fi novels really impressed us Culture #### Comment ### Are cats lazy or not?
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