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How did your journey begin?
I was born loving animals. I had a supportive mother – she
found books for me to read about animals, thinking that
I’d learn to read more quickly. I read Tarzan when I was 10,
and that’s when my dream began: to go to Africa, live with
wild animals and write books about them. I never thought
about being a scientist, because there weren’t women
scientists doing those things in those days. It was wartime,
we had little money and my father was off fighting, so
Africa was a long way away.
I hadn’t been to college – I couldn’t afford it. We had
just enough money for a secretarial course, so I got a job
in London as a secretary. When I was 23, I was invited to
visit a school friend in Kenya, so I gave that job up, moved
back home and worked as a waitress in Bournemouth to
save money for the sea voyage. It was in Kenya that I met
the palaeoanthropologist Dr Louis Leakey. Somebody
suggested I see him if I was interested in animals. Guess
what? He needed a secretary. So that boring old course
led me to a job with him. He was interested in knowing
the similarities between early humans and chimps, and he
eventually decided that I was the person he’d been looking
for, for 10 years, to go to Tanzania to study chimps.What do you think has been your greatest discovery relating to
chimpanzees?
It’s hard to say. I mean, the discovery that led to
press coverage in National Geographic magazine was
chimpanzees using and making tools at the Gombe
National Park in Tanzania. The chimps used grass stems
to fish for termites, and leafy twigs where they removed
the leaves to turn it into a tool. This was in 1960, and at
that time, it was thought that only humans used and
made tools.What’s your favourite memory of your time spent with
chimpanzees?
One really special memory was the first chimp to lose
his fear – David Greybeard. He showed me tool use and
finally allowed me to follow him in the Gombe forest. I was
crawling after him through thick bushes and brambles, and
there he was looking back as though he was waiting for
me. There was a ripe, red palm nut on the ground. I held
him and held the nut out on my hand. He reached, took
the nut, dropped it because he didn’t want it, but he gently
squeezed my hand, which is how chimps reassure each
other. In that moment, I knew that he knew my gesture
was good. That was communication at a pre-human level.What was your most challenging moment?
It was getting the chimps not to run away. When I started
my research, I wasn’t allowed to be alone in the field – the
British government wouldn’t allow it – so I arrived on the
shore of the Gombe with my mom and a cook. But the
chimps kept running away: they’d never seen a white ape
before! I’d get back from my observations depressed, and
Mom would always point out what I was discovering: how
they move around alone or in little groups, sometimes all
joined together if they see a new, ripe fruit; how they make
beds at night in the trees by bending over the branches;
how they make tools. She boosted my morale. To get the
chimps used to me, I wore the same coloured clothes every
day. I didn’t try to get too close too quickly. And I was
patient. It took over a year for them to accept me.You became close to the chimpanzees you studied. Is this
something you felt was necessary to understand the animals?
I think you couldn’t possibly understand them if you didn’t
know them, didn’t know their personalities. And with them
not minding me being there, watching them, that was the
key. Yes, it was necessary. David Greybeard helped me in a
way. Usually, when I arrived, the other chimps would be
ready to run. But if David was there, they’d just look from
him to me and I suppose they thought, “well, she’s not too
frightening after all.”“Wherever I go, I see
little bits of nature,
little bits of animal
behaviour. And nobody
else is watching.”In 1960, Jane Goodall travelled to Africa with the aim of
integrating herself into a community of wild chimps. Now
nearly 60 years on, with Goodall having been put forward
for a Nobel Peace Prize, her observations have transformed
the way we see our primate cousins.
Behaviour
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