WEBVTT

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I'm a primatologist and I work
for the conservation of nature.

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Here I was 25,
when I started my career

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in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
I led a 3-year mission

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to study and research

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a community of chimpanzees
in Virunga National Park.

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It was 1987.

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Chimpanzees were the goal of my studies
,

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but at the same time

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they were my main social contact,

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and so over time, they gradually became

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very important to me.
I would spend all day

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in the forest with them and I began -

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I was never threatened
even if they have a reputation

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of being dangerous - and gradually

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I began to know each individual,

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each individual's personality
and I would recognize them

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by their gestures, their friendships,
and their position in the group.

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As a scientist, I learned

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- and you learn - to be impartial,
objective and to avoid at all costs

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to become too emotionally attached
with the subject of your research.

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But the reality is that I am,
and we all are,

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social primates. So we have

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a natural understanding
and empathy for them.

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This means that
we all have a tendency

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to interpret what we observe.
But sometimes, to avoid

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to anthropomorphize and lose objectivity,

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we avoid acknowledging the obvious.

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However, there has been an exception,
with a chimpanzee

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I had named Ozzie.

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I was walking in the forest every day,

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I knew all of them
but Ozzie was a male teenager

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who had been injured,
before my arrival in the forest,

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by a poacher trap.
And as you can see, his hand

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- despite the poor quality
of the photo -

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his hand was not working.
His left hand.

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It was swollen,
without hair or dexterity.

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He could use it as a hook,

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to draw branches to him
and he could also move

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normally in the forest.
But he was a little excluded

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by the other chimpanzees.
He was rarely deloused

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which for a chimpanzee

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is a sign of low social status.

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One afternoon,
one sunny afternoon,

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all the chimpanzees were resting,
having a nap.

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I was sitting on the ground,
with my back against a tree

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and they were all scattered
around me and I was watching them.

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But Ozzie was close
in a... in a tree,

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on a branch,
maybe one meter above the ground.

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And he was resting with eyes closed.

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But at some point,
I realized

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he was looking at me.
And he swung his "good" arm

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and it was very relaxed,
almost too "cool"

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almost like the boy
stretching at the cinema

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to put his arm around
to the girl next to him.

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And at some point,
I realized

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he was reaching for my hand,
as if inviting me to touch him.

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He was not afraid of me,

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he was curious and reaching out.

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If I had moved my body slightly
and stretched my arm,

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I could have touched his fingers.
My first reflex

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was to see this gesture as a friendly one.

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My first reflex was to respond
to his gesture.

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I was touched, I was tempted,
I was curious

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but I was not sure:
should I cross the bridge

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with that other species?
Should I go

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to meet this being
that remained somehow

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unfathomable to me even after years

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of research and observation.
He was also both familiar,

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but he also a stranger

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I could never truly know.
There I was, sitting

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with my back against the tree and
I did not know what to do.

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And it is this confusion

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that Ozzie provoked in me
which raised the question

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I'm asking here.
What is the proper relationship

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between the human and the other?
What should be the ideal bridge

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between the human and the animal?
Without a common language

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it is impossible for us
to exchange clearly

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and without confusion to other animals...

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As it is impossible for them
to express themselves to us.

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I do not mean that
with a common language,

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there wouldn't be any possibility
of confusion or misunderstanding...

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But without verbal language,
it's so easy

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to question

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what is observed or misinterpreted.

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So we use Science
as the language that enables us

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to understand and 
explain what is observed...

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And the stricter the discipline,

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the lesser the risk of losing objectivity.

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This is important, because
we have a tendency

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to explain, interpret what we observe.

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The fear of anthropomorphism
and efforts to avoid

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any subjective interpretation

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are valid, but they also serve

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as a blindfold covering our eyes

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preventing us from seeing.

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What is often extremely convenient!

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Consider this:
if we cannot prove

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that an animal suffers,
we can ignore its suffering.

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If we cannot demonstrate clearly

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how its sophisticated brain works,
then we can deny

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it works in a sophisticated manner.

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And we can simply conclude

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it is driven by its instincts

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without self-consciousness,
unable to think about its life,

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fears, desires and hopes.

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All this does not exist,
because we can not see it.

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A belief system is in place,

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based on philosophy and religion,

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allowing man to place himself
at the top of a pyramid

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with superiority and domination
over all other species.

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And a sign, among others,
of this is that research

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in animal intelligence
seeks and notes mostly

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how humans 
are superior to other animals...

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We view our skills uh...
and our superior capabilities

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as due to our complex
and sophisticated brain.

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And it gives us a unique potential

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in intelligence, empathy and altruism.

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But the reality is that these skills

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are not unique to humans,
nor always higher.

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Let me give you an example.

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The brain of the orca is large
and comparable structurally

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to the human brain.
Apart from an area...

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The area that allows us
to feel and control emotions,

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and develop social ties.

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This area contains the limbic lobe,

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the insular cortex and the cap.
This area in the orca

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is proportionally larger
and more complex than humans.

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So the only logical conclusion
of such observation

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is a logic that we often apply

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to explain our human superiority

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(compared) to other animals is that such
complexity

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would also indicate more capacity
in this creature.

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This part of the brain in the orca
is more complex...

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so its emotional bonds,

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its emotional life
are likely to be deeper,

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more complex and somehow unfathomable

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for us humans who
do not have these capabilities.

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But we continue to ignore
the implications of these studies,

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and especially to look for research
that does not call into question

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our "superiority".
Denying animals the ability

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of having a sophisticated reflection
animals has been very convenient to us,

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and continues to be so.
This allowed us to

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exploit and even exterminate other species

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regardless of the impact

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on their lives... and without much remorse.

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We talk about the Human and Animal...

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Not of the human as an animal.

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The animal is often used
as a derogatory word.

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Historically and in contemporary life,

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the word 'animal'
is used as an insult.

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To behave like an animal
is unworthy of us...

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Wild, uncontrolled, unrestrained.

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Driven by its instincts
and devoid of morality.

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Like a beast. A pig.

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Or rat. Or a cockroach.

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Put... uh... think how many times
you have heard the sentence

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"Phew! darling, you eat like a pig."?

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But this is not
a meaningless little phrase.

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And it can go very far.

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And in the racist and genocidal language,

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comparisons with animals are very common.

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So, we used the same the theoretical

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human superiority to exploit and hurt

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other humans by comparing them to animals.

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We justified by their "lack of morality

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or sophisticated mental capacities "

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exploitation and enslavement 
of other humans

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by this comparison and
this superiority theory.

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This allowed us to discriminate 
based on race,

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religion, sexuality

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or gender.
It is very important

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to remember that human exploitation
was made

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the same way
that we exploited animals.

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So... What is the proper relationship
with the animal?

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Now I do not want

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to replace one illusion with another...

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nor do I want you to accept the illusion

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and the utopian world 
where all the animals

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have the same capacity!
I would especially like

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us to be aware of our lack of humility

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and lack of integrity...

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And that we admit it as illusory.

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Take for example an animal...
Place it in front of a dog, for example.

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We will all consider ourselves

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superior even if that same dog
had a capacity of smell or

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in the detection of certain diseases

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far beyond ours.
So superior in what?

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Perhaps in a few decades

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we will look at 
our attitudes and our behavior

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towards animals with the same uneasiness

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and shame, and we will find
grotesque the way that

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today we look at discrimination

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on other human populations:

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slavery and genocide.
So... what is the good relationship

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with animals?
I'm coming back to Ozzie

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who reached his arm in the forest.

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Everything indicated a friendly gesture...
Maybe even acknowledging

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my own inferior status as an alien

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a little comparable to his.

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Maybe we were both each other's "other"

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as well as being "other" 
to the chimpanzees in the group.

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It was very difficult to make a choice...

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What a temptation to cross the border

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and to meet the other species,

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a totally wild animal and 
reciprocate the complicity

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and friendship that he seemed to offer me.

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But one thing I knew:
touching a wild animal

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and especially a great ape

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that is so vulnerable to humans...

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this is rarely good for the animal.

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So I did not respond to his gesture.

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I looked at him, but I kept my hands
folded on my lap.

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And after a little while,
Ozzie withdrew his hand

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and stopped not looking at me. 
I made the choice

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not to cross the bridge...
Because somewhere

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I felt it would have been for me...

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and not for him. I wanted him to know

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he had nothing to fear from me...

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But the unpleasant reality is that man is

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everything dangerous, 
threatening and essentially immoral

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in the world of animals.

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For Ozzie, his future and wellbeing

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would depend on him
keeping a little fear of man.

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I did not know
and I would never have known

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the consequences, but since then,
the Congo war led

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to the massacres of humans and animals
by the military,

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poachers and rebels.
For Ozzie, his future was

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with chimpanzees. And it would 
have been dangerous for him

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to put too much trust in a human being.

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But I'm left with the question...
"What if.... ".

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And I cannot say that 
I wasn't tempted...

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nor that I do not keep

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some small regret about my decision.

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After so many years with wild animals

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and so many years looking for

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the ideal scientific position,

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I began to understand

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the limits of my own knowledge

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and all that remains unfathomable
and essentially different.

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Now I come back to the
question I put to you:

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what is the ideal bridge
between the human and the animal?

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And I wonder, should we focus that much

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on a comparison of the differences?

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Or should we look at

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these differences and the value,

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the beauty and importance
of these differences?

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I think the terra incognita
of other animals is defined

00:17:36.208 --> 00:17:39.416
by our ignorance and this blindfold

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we keep deliberately 
before our eyes not to see.

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Maybe the ideal bridge between
the human and the other

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should be a celebration 
of those differences

00:17:53.544 --> 00:17:56.469
towards a respectful coexistence?
Thank you.