From Shirley C. Strum University of California, San Diego, US
I am a scientist who has studied wild baboons in Kenya for over 50 years. While I agree with much of what Christine Webb says in her book, The Arrogant Ape, looking at humans through what I call my “baboon glasses”, constructed over decades of research, shows just how exceptional humans are (15 November, p 25).
Recently, the weight of human infrastructure (concrete, glass, timber, metals, etc.) equalled the weight of all life on Earth. Because of this, I reach a different conclusion to Webb. We shouldn’t look to any non-human animal to find the origins of the best and worst human behaviours. These are of our own (human) making. Our muddle today is because humans are exceptional.
