Fresh Loaf

TED KENNEDY: Helps kick off the Democratic National Convention with a rousing speech, despite his terminal brain cancer.

GUSTAV: Hurricane gains strength in advance of hitting Haiti. Tropical Storm Fay’s remnants continue to soak Atlanta today; the storm destroyed only about 8 percent of coastal Georgia’s sea turtle nests, though, which was less than feared.

FRED CRANE: The actor who played a beau to Scarlett O’Hara and spoke Gone With the Wind’s first line has died at the age of 90.

HOT MANTA: The Georgia Aquarium brings in a manta ray rescued from fishing nets in the Indian Ocean.

RUSTLE: A raccoon that’s been terrorizing a judge and others at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building downtown has been captured.

WONDER WAAL: Emory primate researcher Frans de Waal has demonstrated that generosity is rewarding to capuchin monkeys, who prefer “prosocial” behavior over pure self interest.

CLAYTON WITH BATED BREATH: SACS is expected to announce this week whether it will strip Clayton schools of their accreditation, since the Sept. 1 deadline falls on Labor Day.

STATE PARKS: Could be closed due to the statewide budget crisis.

QUILTERS NEVER WIN: The Gee’s Bend quilters from Alabama have resolved their lawsuit against an Atlanta art dealer whom they had accused of cheating them out of earnings.

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In the July 30 issue of the New Yorker, Ian Parker writes about the bonobo phenomenon in a story called “Swingers.” Bonobos, he writes, have recently earned a media reputation as love monkeys, gentle beasts who — unlike the warring chimpanzee — have copious amounts of sex, usually get along, and live in female-dominated communities.

During the article, Parker debunks the work of Frans de Waal, the Dutch-born, Atlanta-based professor and primatologist who teaches at Emory University. De Waal co-wrote a 1997 best-seller about bonobos, Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape. His research led Time magazine to name him one of the Time 100 “people who shape our world” earlier this year.

Parker doesn’t outright dismiss de Waal’s research. But he makes several digs that seem condescending. He notes several times that de Waal’s research was “limited to bonobos in captivity,” namely the San Diego Zoo, not in the wild. “It is a frustration to some,” writes Parker, that de Waal, “who is the most frequently quoted authority on the species, has never seen a wild bonobo.”

Parker takes pains to note that wild bonobo behavior is less idyllic than the pop image, and argues that the San Diego bonobos that de Waal researched are domesticated. Parker quotes another professor, USC’s Craig Sanford, as saying, “Stuck together, bored out of their minds — what is there to do except eat and have sex?”

Finally, Parker contrasts de Waal’s seemingly lazy approach with Gottfried Hohmann, a German scientist with a reputation for “chilliness” who nevertheless travels to the Congo for months at a time, attempting to observe bonobos in their natural habitat. Compared to the ornery but diligent Hohmann, de Waal comes off as a publicity hound seeking to paint bonobos as the love monkeys:

The Forgotten Ape presented itself as a European tonic to American prudishness and the vested interests of chimpanzee scientists. The bonobo was gentle, horny, and — de Waal did not quite say it — Dutch.

All told, “Swingers” is a pretty devastating critique. To my knowledge, de Waal hasn’t made any public comments about the piece. Perhaps he’ll have something to say when classes at Emory commence later this month. In the meantime, you can read the story here.

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