I was enthralled by the drama of the Gombe chimps: Flo's large and loving family, Fifi's antics, David Greybeard's easygoing trust, political power struggles and the friendships and alliances. I loved the anecdotes, like when two chimps discovered that the banana stash had reappeared they started screaming and hugging each other instead of rushing over to eat right away. Stories of how different mothers raised their children were so interesting.

I was left thinking about how hard and cruel life is in chimp society. Violent outbursts are common, how scary and chaotic that must be for socially unaware children and infants. How the chimps treated the ones who had been paralyzed during the polio epidemic was most heartbreaking of all--but as I reflected on that I realized that I was less sad that the chimps don't appear to have the capacity for empathy, and more sad that humans, who do have a boundless capacity for empathy, so often act like chimps.