Frans De Waal

Peace-making monkeys console each other for the good of the tribe

The best of friends. Hung Chung Chih/Shutterstock

For us humans, getting involved in an aggressive conflict can be costly, not only because of the risk of injury and stress but also because it can damage precious social relationships between friends – and the same goes for monkeys and apes.

Just like humans, they also form selective long-term bonds. And in the primate world, aggression is especially harmful to these relationships because of tolerance reach breakpoint and so the rate of friendly interactions.

Projects On The Go

Monkey Sanctuary HP 1 Conservation in Southern Africa is rapidly becoming unsustainable without the active involvement of the community, especially the younger, more active generation. The Bushbabies Monkey Sanctuary and The Elephant Sanctuary group strongly believe that we have to get the younger members of communities involved to instill a passion for the environment and wildlife in them through education.

Pet Monkeys... Really A Good Idea?

monkey as pet I'll introduce you to Joyce, for example. A young female capuchin, she was rather pampered with child-like paraphernalia; a dress and a small hat around her head. Cute, indeed. She had been with her "foster" family since only two months old, bought straight from a breeder. The couple who owned her did not have children, and so decided to substitute the missing link with a primate, albeit a bit smaller...and with sharper teeth.