“The connection to the emotions of others, which I call empathy, for example, is very developed in the mammals, but there are now studies on birds, and I’m actually involved in a study on fish believe it or not,” says de Waal,
“Consolation behavior as I call it, which chimpanzees do — let’s say someone is distressed and they go over to that individual and they embrace and kiss. Consolation has now been documented in many species. And anyone who has a dog probably has experience with it also.”
De Waal struggles to understand why people don’t think animals are smart.
