Less brutish, still short

摘要

Every day the world seems more like Aesop's "Fables". Rooks are found to use ingenious tools; dolphins are overheard talking to whales; and pigs, while not yet flying, play a passable game of foot-ball-at least according to the bbc. As for apes, they would hardly make headlines any more if they were found to be adept at composing limericks.rnFrans de Waal, a primatologist in the psychology department of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, is perhaps best known for his studies of bonobos-the so-called "politically correct" apes who are somewhat feminist, often resolve disputes by making love instead of war, and with whom humans share as much of their dna as they do with chimpanzees. His new book, "The Age of Empathy", looks at altruism and sympathetic fellow-feeling in both humans and other animals.