The Grumpy Vegan launched The Descartes Awards because he’s tired of human supremacists who argue that animals are, well, animals and humans are a higher form of life because we shop. Rene Descartes was the seventeenth century French philosopher who denied animals the ability to think and — correctly, as it turned out, the inability to shop. Frequently considered to be “the father of modern philosophy,” he influenced generations of scientists into believing that animals were merely machines, famously comparing them to “clocks” lacking the ability to reason.
Chimpanzees may not cross the road to shop but when they do cross the road they use their own “Stop, Look, Listen and Think” safety program. Stirling and Tokyo Universities observed mixed groups of chimpanzees in Guinea, western Africa, crossing two roads that ran through their territory. One was a simple mud track and the other a road recently widened to carry trucks, cars and motorbikes. The Guardian reports:
“When faced with a busy road, large male chimps headed to the front of the pack to check the road was clear before leading females and their young across. Meanwhile, other males headed to the back of the group to bring up the rear. Often, a high-ranking male assumed the role of lollipop man by wandering on to the road and checking it for traffic until the entire pack had crossed safely.”
So, The Descartes Award goes to the chimpanzees who stopped, looked, listened and thought carefully before crossing the road.
