Mama's Last Hug

Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves

By: Frans de Waal

Narrated by: L. J. Ganser

Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author and primatologist Frans de Waal explores the fascinating world of animal and human emotions. 

Mama's Last Hug opens with the dramatic farewell between Mama, a dying 59-year-old chimpanzee matriarch, and biologist Jan Van Hooff. This heartfelt final meeting of two longtime friends, widely shared as a video, offers a window into how deep and instantly recognizable these bonds can be. 

So begins Frans de Waal's whirlwind tour of new ideas and findings about animal emotions, based on his renowned studies of the social and emotional lives of chimpanzees, bonobos, and other primates. De Waal discusses facial expressions, animal sentience and consciousness, Mama's life and death, the emotional side of human politics, and the illusion of free will. He distinguishes between emotions and feelings, all the while emphasizing the continuity between our species and other species. And he makes the radical proposal that emotions are like organs: We don't have a single organ that other animals don't have, and the same is true for our emotions. 

©2019 Frans de Waal (P)2019 Recorded Books

SO TRUE!

Just loved it!!! Finally a book, written by a well respected scientist, to open that door, and place a permanent door stop on it ever closing again, to let all societyknow, we are all individuals with open hearts, souls, emotions, love,desires, worries, plans, hopes, dedication, concerns, hate, fear, jealousy, and more. Modern life has blunted our own understandings of ourselves, and Frans is making it clear, that, after all, we humans, who think we are so superior, are not so, not at all! We can learn a lot, if only we open ourselves to the opportunity ! I will now purchase all of his other books as well! JUST LOVED IT, humbling!

Informative and Anecdotal - Perfect Combo

5/5 Stars

"The heart has reasons of which reason knows nothing."

~ Frans de Waal

MAMA’S LAST HUG was recommended to me by my father, an environmental engineer who reads … well, not that much. Because of this, I was over the moon excited to get a book recommendation from him, and his recommendation did not disappoint.

This book is for animal lovers everywhere. While it focuses on primates and primate relationships and emotions (including the pivotal primate: us), it delves deep into the emotions (separate and distinct from feelings) of all mammals as well as birds and fish. As a dog lover, I especially enjoyed the bits about our canine companions, and it was interesting to see de Waal’s take on some research conducted by canine behaviorists whose work I’d read (such as Patricia McConnell and Alexandra Horowitz).

Mama’s Last Hug wasn’t all facts and research and science, though. Otherwise, it would probably have been a bit unreadable. Instead, the book hugged the science lightly around anecdotes, including some hilarious stories from de Waal’s years spent observing chimpanzees as well as an entire chapter comparing Donald Trump to alpha chimps (spoiler: the comparison isn’t particularly flattering for The Donald).

What lingered with me the most about this book, however, besides learning all kinds of new information, was the questions about animal welfare it brought to light. We still test products on animals in the United States. We keep chimps in cages, away from their family. We have beagles who spend their entire lives in laboratories, never feeling grass, or smelling the scents of the world. We slaughter animals inhumanely and without much thought. And how do we assuage our guilt and shame over these atrocities? We convince ourselves that animals can’t feel, that they don’t experience pain or terror or curiosity. They live in the moment, we often say about our dogs. They don’t know the difference between yesterday and today and tomorrow. But if Frans de Waal’s research is to be believed, that’s not entirely true. And if it isn’t, it raises some questions we might not like the answers to.

All in all, I would highly recommend Mama’s Last Hug to those who love animals, and to anyone who is interested in the most recent science into the animal (and therefore, human) mind.

Full of rants.

I was very frustrated with this book. I really wanted to like it. The author has a lot of interesting information, but he spends an inordinate amount of the book ranting about how naive, ignorant and blind other scientists and professionals are. It's a constant theme throughout.

If you can get past his negativity and judgments of others, then you might like it, but I couldn't finish it. His negativity put me in a bad mood.

Must read!

I enjoyed listening to this book very much. I was hesitant from reading this in the beginning, thinking it would be a dull science book on emotions. In the contrary I found the book to be very interesting and insightful. I enjoyed the author’s sense of humor at recounting some of the stories and examples. The narrator captures the author’s words so well, I felt I was really listening to the author it self.

Exceptional Science

The narrator was top notch . The material was well supported and insightful. Logical, rational, and reasonable conclusions. Transparent scientific method. Loved it.

Excellent

I highly recommend this book. It is so well done. Both in content and narration.

More of a text book than a story

This is more of a text book than a story about Mama. The psychology of animals in general is covered extensively in the book and not as much on the life and interaction with Mama. Starts out good but then gets too much like a psychology text book. I was looking for a more endearing story.

So Good I Bought the Print Version

The truth is, audiobooks are difficult for me because I usually read with a pencil in hand, checking notes and references, marking down questions and ideas. So, it's frustrating to just listen, but I've begun cultivating the practice because I now walk several miles a day, especially to and from my office. It fills the time. But this book really asked for more. While it's delightfully accessible to a lay reader (like me), it raises provocative, intriguing questions for reflection and further research. Charming and inspirational as well as well grounded in contemporary research, I found that as much as I enjoyed listening, I simply need more. But this is a great way into the topic.

Could have done without political opinions

The first half of this book and the very end are worth a 5 star rating. But there is a big chunk in the second half where he goes off on a tangent, trying to connect the dots between animals and his very biased political opinions as if they are facts. It is really distracting and it takes a while to get the gross taste out of your mouth once he finally stops and gets back on track.

Great book about animal emotions

De Waal is not only the world’s leading primatologist, but he is also a great philosopher. I say watch his TED talk and get your hands on the rest of his books!

a fascinating listen

I loved the book. Absolutely. The author's profound knowledge is impressive. Interesting and entertaining. At the same time full of solid science. I also liked the final chapter where the author talks about moral implications of our knowledge concerning animal emotions

Lifts the Lid

Our ignorance on our relationship to animals is slowly lifting. They're not "just animals" and we're not that different from them. We are different in degree, not in kind.