Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
By: Frans de Waal / Narrated By: Sean Runnette
Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
Frans de Waal knocks it outta the park yet again!
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? was my sister’s pick for our audiobook club’s choice, and we were all delighted with it. Beware! It smacks of many -isms such as the dreaded anthropomorphism, but at this point, anyone who’s shared their lives with an animal can tell ya: Who are WEEEEE to say that this or that are humans-only traits? Sorry, but some of my favorite Accomplices are fuzzy and have four legs.
De Waal gives us an extended history of how we’ve viewed animals through the ages and especially of how we’ve tested them and found them lacking. Turns out, we’re complete and utter goofballs…! Ya wanna see if an elephant can identify himself in a mirror? Well, it helps mightily if you use a BIG mirror and not an itty bitty one for cripes sake! All those negative results we’ve gotten are more representative of our own failings than they are of any failings on the animal’s part. And sometimes the tests are simply stupidly irrelevant to an animal’s life. Certainly we’ve learned as humans that there are cultural differences when testing those of our own species. What might be relevant in one culture makes absolutely no sense to another. I mean, we haaaave learned that, right? Right? (Oh, I guess not…BUT), seriously, why on earth would a squirrel wanna know something that has no impact on his survival? Frans makes excellent arguments for really thinking out our reasoning for testing before administration of possibly goofball experiments.
Some of the tests were heartbreaking. Okay, so dolphins have signature noises as names. And the tests show that captive dolphins will rush to a speaker emitting the signatures of others that were former tank mates. Like, they’re so happy to be reunited with their friends. Like, how lonely is that? And why do we still keep them captive? It kinda broke my heart, especially since reunion wasn’t in the cards, but disappointment was. Like, in their CAPTIVE lives. Like, can I say it again? Captive?!? Oy vey, what are we doing to creatures?!?
Sean Runnette does his usual pretty okay job with narration. Sorry, but I remember him mostly for being the confused, shutdown, grieving hero in Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo, so I just got that vibe from him here again. Frans de Waal as a confused, shutdown, grieving world-renowned biologist and primatologist. It was a tad odd, but at least Runnette lets de Waal’s personality and sense of humor and wonder come through for the most part.
There’s a part where a chimp, I believe? brings fruit down from trees to share with her mother who can no longer climb? (I don’t quite remember it, so I’d have to ask my sister) that shows love and devotion. My sister SWEARS she’ll be shimmying up trees to bring our mom tasty bits of fruit should Maman ever need it. So that just goes to show something: Namely that even humans, yes humans, can learn a little something from our fellow creatures on this planet…
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