Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall: The focus of the institute has definitely been the protection of chimpanzees and other primate habitats. We’ve got three programmes as parts of this effort: the Roots and Shoots programme which is involved in education and spreading awareness among young people, the chimpanzee research programme in Africa which is now in its 46th year, and then we’ve got a programme called TACARE which works in participatory conservation of different species. This programme tries to involve local people in conservation efforts, improving their lives, and in the process protecting species like hyenas and baboons. We’re also trying to set up a Jane Goodall Institute in India. I visited China last year, and we’ve already got three institutes there. Roots and Shoots has groups in Goa and Chennai. We’re trying to take it to other parts of the country, too.

OT: What is it that you find most endearing about chimps and what do you like least about them?

Jane Goodall: Chimps share so many characteristics with us — they hold hands, they kiss, they have personalities. But their most ‘human’ characteristic is child rearing. Chimp mothers, like human mothers, can be good mothers and bad mothers, and much like human mothers they learn as the baby grows. And what I like the least — the fact that males fight for dominance (smiles) they, like humans, have a dark side — war, violence. However, only humans are capable of premeditated evil — and the highest altruism.

OT: You’ve travelled extensively all over the world?

Jane Goodall: Which are some of the areas you’ve really enjoyed working in? One of my favourite trips was to the Goualougo Triangle in Congo — we spent many days walking through the swamps among gorillas and chimpanzees. I also loved my trip to Yellowstone — that’s the first time I saw bears. Another trip I did in the US a couple of months ago was fantastic — it was part of a project to teach a flock of captive-bred whooping cranes a new migration route. So I went up in a micro-light dressed as a crane, and had a whole flock of cranes flying besides me. It was beautiful. 

OT: Did N’kisi the talking African grey parrot actually say “Got a chimp?” when he saw you?

Jane Goodall: Indeed he did, the cognitive abilities of animals are quite amazing. When I started working with chimps, animals were not credited with having personalities, intelligence or the ability to feel emotion. At least that’s what scientists claimed. But my childhood teacher — my dog Rusty — had taught me otherwise. And over the course of my studies it became apparent that chimps did have personalities. They could use tools, understand sign language, etc. Today we’re realising that even birds have tool-related cognitive abilities. It might be inconvenient to us as human beings to think that animals and birds have personalities and qualities, but they do.

OT: Do you still do active research?