Jane Goodall on a life dedicated to the study of chimpanzees

Looking back, Jane Goodall realises she had the makings of a scientist when she was just a tot: curiosity, not being afraid to make a mistake and patience.

Jane Goodall’s extreme love of nature could have ended just as quickly as it began, when she was just 18 months old and took a handful of earthworms into bed with her.

“My mother wasn’t angry, she simply explained that if I left them there they would die,” Goodall recalled. “I realise now I had the making of a scientist – curiosity, not being afraid to make a mistake, and patience. With a different mother, those skills might have been crushed.”

At 23, Goodall set off on her own to Africa. There she met the renowned primatologist Louis Leakey, who entrusted her to study wild chimps in Tanzania, even though Goodall didn’t even have a degree. “When I first arrived, the chimps took one look and ran away. They’d never seen a white ape before. But slowly one chimp, David Greybeard, began to lose his fear of me. “

Goodall had her big breakthrough when she witnessed the animal using grass stems as tools to catch termites.

“One time, I thought I’d lost him. I picked him a ripe palm nut and he didn’t take it. But instead he very gently squeezed my hand, which is how humans and chimps reassure each other. So we communicated perfectly.”

The more she got to know the chimps, the more she realised they shared our unsavory characteristics, too. Goodall witnessed chimps killing and eating colobus monkeys, and killing each other.

“Before that I had thought they were like us, but nicer. I wasn’t shocked by them hunting, because people hunt. But I was shocked when I realised they were conducting a primitive war against another group of chimps.

“I think that chimps and humans are about as civilised as each other. But we’re worse, because we can understand better than they can what we’re doing.”

But Goodall saw examples of true altruism in the chimps, too.

“I remember fondly a 12-year-old male who adopted a 3-year-old infant. He protected and looked after him. It was very moving.”

Next month, Goodall will return to Tanzania to spend more time with the chimps. They live up to 60 years, and almost all those Goodall originally befriended have now died. Now 80, Goodall shows no signs of slowing down.

“I never imagined I’d still be working at 80. I’m going to have to stop travelling at some point I suppose. But I won’t ever retire.”