For years, scientists have obsessed about chimps and baboons - the primates that seem to show us what our human ancestors were once like. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why primatologists now think those models are wrong. Also, the remarkable bonobo (buh-NO-bo) - the ape that makes love, not war.

SEGMENT 1

Frans de Waal tells Steve Paulson about bonobos -- "pygmy" chimps who live in peaceful, egalitarian groups run by females. De Waal is a primatologist at Emory University and the Yerkes Primate Research Center in Atlanta and the author of "Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape." Also, University of Wisconsin-Madison primatologist Karen Strier studies muriqui monkeys in Brazil. She tells Judith Strasser that the behavior of these New World monkeys is very different from the myths based on African species.

SEGMENT 2:

University of California-Davis anthropologist Sarah Hrdy (not a typo -- there's no vowel!) studies langur monkeys, who practice infanticide. She tells Jim Fleming about the evolutionary advantages for males in killing infants sired by other males. Hrdy is the author of "The Langurs of Abu" and "The Woman That Never Evolved."

SEGMENT 3:

Russell Mittermeier is a primatologist and president of Conservation International. He exemplifies the new breed of bio-politician -- equally at home in the corridors of power and the jungle. He talks with Steve Paulson about becoming and being a naturalist.

• week of 08/17/97 - hour 2
• week of 06/28/98 - hour 2