You might recognize prominent primatologist Frans de Waal from
lectures he has given about his research on primate behavior,
which have been popularized on YouTube. His face is familiar to
chimpanzees, too; some chimps that he knew as babies still
recognize him even after decades apart, he said. "Chimpanzees
have the advantage that you cannot ask them questions, so you
have to watch (their) behavior to see what they do," says de
Waal, director of Emory University's Living Links Center, in his
Dutch-accented voice that is both gentle and authoritative. He
adds, with dry humor: "With humans, you can ask questions and
you get all sorts of answers I don't trust, so I prefer to work
with chimpanzees for that reason." Living Links is part of the
oldest and largest primate center in the United States: The
Yerkes National Primate Research Center, a secluded grassy area
in suburban Atlanta where humans work in office trailers and
other animals play in open-air compounds. De Waal, who has been
at the center for more th