Deep in the African forest, there are chimps who play unguarded, unobserved, wild and free. Here, millions of years ago, ancestors they shared with man also played. To observe the chimp in the wild is to better understand the evolution of human behavior. But observation of the wild chimpanzee is difficult and dangerous, and knowledge of his ways has been mostly speculation.
Determined to uncover the secrets of the chimps, in 1960, Miss Jane Goodall arrives in Tanzania. Her discoveries here will startle the scientific world, and lead to the possible redefinition of the word, man. Hello, I'm Mike Farrell.
Welcome to the Best of National Geographic. With each of these programs in the highly acclaimed series from the National Geographic Society, we embark on a richly rewarding adventure. Explore with us man's continuing quest for our world's hidden wonders, its enduring beauty and drama.
As in the Best of Adventures, our journey of discovery ultimately takes us to a deeper understanding of ourselves. Jane Goodall has studied her subject in its natural habitat for a longer period than any scientist has ever spent with any animal in the wild. Her observations have made her legendary. What we've learned from her about wild chimpanzee behavior has filled volumes, and her own writings have firmly established her as the world's foremost authority on the subject.
This program is the chronicle of Jane Goodall's pioneering years in Africa. Her early frustrations, the first tentative encounters with the shy chimps, her growing insights about their behavior, and ultimately, the wonderfully fulfilling rewards of her research. This is Jane Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees. In July 1960, Jane Goodall, a 26-year-old English girl, has embarked on a remarkable adventure. At the request of the British anthropologist, Dr. LSB Leakey, she is to observe the daily lives of chimpanzees in East Africa, where she has been one of Dr. Leakey's assistants.
From Leakey's headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, it's a five-day... Today's journey to Tanzania's Gombe Stream Reserve. For a girl who'd hated dolls and collected worms, it's a very special day.
When I arrived at the Gombe Stream Reserve, I felt that at long last my childhood ambition was being realized. Always I had wanted to go out into the field and study animals. On that first day, when I looked at the wild and rugged mountains where the chimpanzees live, I knew that my task was not going to be easy.
The Chimp Reserve stretches 20 miles along the east shore of Lake Tanganyika. And 100 yards from the lake, James Camp is set up. Sponsored and filmed by the National Geographic Society, the expedition, which will yield what Dr. Leakey will call the most remarkable study on any primate ever made, at last is underway. Jane's permanent party will include only an African cook, and his family, and an African aide. Otherwise she's on her own.
A girl with no special training, but with natural aptitude. And in the words of Dr. Leakey, no preconceived ideas. By nightfall, the camp is near completion.
Few attempts to study chimps in their natural habitat have been successful. But in the morning, Jane Goodall will set out in search of the powerful and potentially dangerous animals and try to observe details of their behavior never recorded before. She's been told how a frightened chimp once ripped away a man's cheek.
She's also been warned, you'll never get near them. In the morning, Jane Goodall, armed only with binoculars, departs for the first time into the African forests, where earliest known man probably lived more than a million years ago. From 60 to 80 chimps are known to inhabit the 60 square miles of the Gombe Stream Reserve and through grass up to 14 feet tall in temperatures as high as 115 degrees.
Jane must seek them out. Leopards, bush buck and buffalo seem more readily found, but any thought of personal danger is diminished. By Jane's determination to find and study the elusive chimpanzees. In search of the wild chimpanzee, day after day.
For 12 hours a day, Jane explores the valleys of the reserve one by one. But the chimps know she's around, and her efforts are to no avail. I simply wanted to be amongst animals in the wild, and to discover as much as possible about the animals. the lives of the chimps. Somewhere and somehow I had to find the shy chimpanzees before I could even start to overcome their fear and be able to observe them.
After a two-month search in vain, Jane receives a small reward. She finds a tuft of hair. This, after two long months, is the closest she has come to a chimpanzee.
1500 feet above the thickly forested valleys, Jane can scan wide areas of country stretched out below. From here she may yet be able to locate the evasive chimpanzees. Chimpanzees at last. Now from the peak she can at least begin to learn about their behavior.
Chimps sometimes make their beds, Jane observes, several hours before dusk. Since they sleep where they happen to be feeding, they must make new nests almost every night. If the trees are well foliaged and the branches strong, in a matter of minutes, when their bed's up to 80 feet high, they'll be ready to rest contented until it's time to sleep. The days of futile wandering are over.
Jane feels she has made contact at last. Now that she can tell where the chimps are, she must try to find them below in order to observe them up close. I'll chimps flee the pale-skinned stranger invading their domain For Jane, the harsh realization that she can't get closer than 500 yards. It was a bitter disappointment.
On such occasions, I felt frustration, even despair. There were times when I wondered if they would ever permit me to approach them. At night, when the temperature drops below 60, the camp is a cozy, if lonely, place.
In the cook's tent, Jane's dinner is prepared and brought to her. It will be her first meal since her morning coffee, more than 12 hours before. After dinner, it will take her until midnight to enter and to adjourn all the events of another long and difficult, if somewhat promising, day.
After all this time in the field, she can't help feeling she's made but little progress. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be I'm gonna be I'm gonna be I'm gonna be It would take this long to get close to the chimps. The fetus, it only made my determination to succeed stronger. My desire was to be amongst and find out about animals in their natural habitat. There was never any thought of quitting.
I should forever have lost all self-respect if I had given up. In season, there's fishing off the shore. Small sardine-sized fish called dagar are scooped up to be sold by the sack. Fishermen camp on the beach during the day and fish through the night.
Fish are dried in the sun. Jane, who is fluent in Swahili, begins another day. Time will be most profitably spent on top of the mountain.
Up above the thick forest of the valleys, I was able to watch the chimpanzees over long distances. In this way, I was able to learn much about chimpanzee behavior. At the same time, it gave them an opportunity of getting accustomed to my presence.
From a mountain perch, Jane learns that chimps range over the Gombe area in small groups of three to six and may travel as far as ten miles a day in search of food. Groups constantly change in size and membership, merging and separating and have no apparent leaders. Chimps, Jane finds, are meticulous about each other's appearance and spend up to two hours a day in mutual grooming. In contrast to the often ill-tempered chimp in captivity, chimps in the wild are eager and happy to do for each other. In the Gombe area, most groups live harmoniously.
They are promiscuous and generously share mates. Another group has become aware of the presence of the chimps grooming nearby. They, at least temporarily, seem to have a leader. With much excitement, the visitors head for the group of chimps, so peacefully grooming away the quiet afternoon. There's to be a grand reunion.
It will seem like a clash between enemies. For the chimpanzee, a hurt foot seems a small price to pay for the unbridled joy in meeting by chance friends and lovers again. The vacation from the mountain has its rewards and soon Jane has a little hut built where she keeps a blanket, some coffee, a few tins of food.
It makes it possible for her to enjoy a noontime snack, but more importantly, now she can stay on the mountain for long periods, studying the chimps without interruption. Especially profitable when the fruit trees around the mountain are ripe and the chimps begin to feed and camp near their peak. For chimps, the Gombe Reserve provides a harsh environment.
The bulk of their diet is vegetarian, but food is often hard to find. Still, they spend up to seven hours a day in feeding, and the great pleasure derived from grooming seems surpassed in the act of eating. It's been a long and exhausting afternoon. As dusk approaches, it's time for sated chimps to think of sleep.
Here Jane too will spend the night, high above the African forest. There's a special fascination about the sudden nightfall in a forest, when the sounds of the day give place to the more mysterious sounds and rustles of the night. I always enjoyed these nights in the mountains with no human companionship.
My childhood dream was being realized, but I little dreamt then how long it would take to get close up amongst the chimps. Their general behavior is no longer a secret, but she must learn more of their intimate lives. Tomorrow she must awake with the wild chimpanzees and somehow get closer.
The long rains come to the African forest. For months it will rain almost every day. The Jane Goodall. Although chimpanzees hate getting wet, Jane observes they don't seem to know enough to get out of the rain.
Instead, they sit in wet misery and watch a single chimp perform what Jane calls the rain dance. Then as sudden as it began, both the rain and the dance are over. Jane has watched the rain dance from a distance of a hundred yards. Are the chimps becoming accustomed to her presence or were they merely distracted by the rain?
She moves in a little closer and makes a startling discovery. She sees a chimp picking a leaf, crumpling it in his mouth and using it to sop up water collected deep in a hollow of a tree. Up till now, man alone has been considered the toolmaker.
Chimpanzees have been seen drinking from natural water bowls in Uganda, but on those instances, they merely dipped their fingers into the water and licked off the drops. The exciting fact in the Gombe Stream area is that the chimpanzee, by initially crumpling the leaves into a sponge, is in fact making a tool. Confirmation of tool making. Hopefully, she moves in still closer.
The forest resounds with a call of alarm. The chimps have no real language, but a variety of calls express communicable emotions. And now the emotion is fear. It means that not yet. made the blonde stranger draw near.
Now Jane decides to build a blind, a screen of leaves that will help conceal her from the chimps. After nearly a year in the forest, she hopes she will be able to observe them from as close as a hundred feet. Selected a place at which she knows the chimps will feed. And now, with binoculars set, she waits. Jane hopes to observe details of chimp behavior never reported before.
Suddenly the chimp sense something is wrong. She's been discovered. The chimps seem suspicious, but undecided. They are accustomed to Jane only from afar. Now, should they remain or run away?
As long as Jane remains hidden, the chimps decide, they can stay. Now Jane will be able to study the chimps as individuals, to recognize them and give them names. Flo is by our standards a most ugly female. Flo's daughter Fifi still goes around with her family and although she is now endowed with the charms of youth she has many of her mother's features and will be no beauty in a few years time. Little Flint like all chimp babies is packed full of charm and endearment.
Leaky, a big rugged fellow, can be easily recognized because of the exposed white of his left eye, where the lower lid has been torn. He was named after my friend, Dr. Leaky. Goliath is distinguished by his bald forehead. David Greybeard is exceptionally good looking. His grey whiskers and his calm gaze give him an air of distinction.
Flint is observed on his first venture away from his mother. Flint now appeals to Leakey for comfort. Chimp babies are indulged and made to feel secure. Violent quarrels, Jane discovers, may erupt for no apparent reason and just as quickly turn into play. Allowed to...
Watch for Jane. These are triumphant days. About 40 chimps come under Jane's close scrutiny in the blind.
And slowly they become used to having her near. The chimps gradually came to realize that I was not dangerous after all. And after about 15 months, I was allowed to approach a small group without attempting to hide. I think it was one of the proudest and most exciting moments of my life.
Now Jane may work with the chimps only 30 feet away. So the early days of difficulty and frustration passed, and I became more and more fascinated by the chimps themselves, the pleasure of studying them, and the delight of discovery. In the dry season, tired chimps like to take naps on the ground. Among the chimps, Jane now studies them in the open, tolerated, ignored, and here she will remain for three years more.
Every day of the week, Jane Goodall spends an average of 12 hours in the field. Every day after a quick breakfast at dawn, she departs for another rendezvous with the chimps. There's the daily bread, which she will bake in the hot African sun.
Jims, Jane carries on other aspects of her work, like tasting the food they eat. Examine closely one of the chimpanzees nests. Some are as high as 80 feet and almost impossible for Jane to reach.
Found a chimp's nest. Doesn't look very strong, but she finds it can support a primate very well. In fact, it's rather comfortable. At camp, the bread is about ready. Suddenly, the cook sees an incredible sight.
Chimps are visiting the camp. Once before, a single chimp had ventured into camp, and Jane had missed him. It must not happen again. As arranged, a towel is tied to a tree. There's a signal to Jane in the field that there are chimps in the camp.
Having examined the nest, Jane is out looking for her chimpanzees. There are chimps in the camp. If she's gained the confidence of the chimps to this extent...
She mustn't miss them again. It's a heartwarming sight when Jane sees Flint on top of her tent. This visit means that at last her chimpanzees have lost all fear of her. They feel secure enough even to threaten.
The camp holds many fascinations. A laundry basket becomes an object for war between Fifi and little brother Flint. 64, with time out only for brief visits home to England, Jane is still in the field.
People often wonder if I miss the conveniences of home. Certainly there are times when I long to hear good music. And too, there are times when I wish there was leisure to read non-scientific books.
But apart from this, I can honestly say that I'm completely happy here at the Reserve. Life in a tent, washing in an icy stream. And even the heat of midday, the torrential rains, and the sometimes bothersome insects are all part of life in the bush.
This was the life I had always wished for, and I have certainly never regretted choosing it. Between Jane and the chimps, by now practically all barriers are down. Yet these are still wild and powerful animals.
And with this new intimacy, she is in greater personal danger than ever before. Sometimes it's difficult to resist playing with some of my young chimp friends. Eight-year-old Figgin is always gentle when we play, but already he's stronger than a man, and soon it'll be too dangerous to play with him. At present, the chimps do not seem to realize that they're stronger than I am. And the main danger in playing with the young ones is that they might one day learn their own superiority.
Jane has come a long way from those early days of frustration and despair. Now, after four years in the forest, she reaps the rewards of total acceptance. At about 12 chimps reach maturity.
Until then, Jane observes, they develop their strengths mainly by play in the trees. Meanwhile little Flint does the best he can. One day Jane conducts an experiment with a toy chimpanzee as a potential playmate for Flint.
Jane introduces the strangely quiet new member of the group and watches for Flint's reaction. Flint's curiosity has been aroused. But like all wild chimps, he's afraid of anything new. Jane places a mirror in the forest and wonders how the chimps will react to this. They've seen themselves for the first time and Jane records for posterity the shattering experience.
One puzzled young female can't believe what she sees. It's an utter mystery. She looks behind the mirror to see who's there. But the mystery remains unsolved. Yet the image must have substance.
Perhaps if she puts her hand behind. Jane notes the logical, if untutored, deduction of the chimp. And observes that older chimps are remarkably quick to relate their movements to those in the mirror.
But patience is short-lived, and with relief, bewildered chimps leave behind the enigma of the mirror. Now that she may work unhindered, Jane makes her greatest strides in significant discovery. A chimp scrambles through the bush with the most unexpected prey, and Jane is the first to confirm the fact that, like men, chimps in the wild eat meat. It was an exciting moment when I first saw a chimpanzee eating meat, exciting and important.
Previously, people had thought that chimps in the wild might occasionally eat a small rodent or a nestling, but to discover that they actually hunt and kill larger mammals is something quite new. I've seen them eating the flesh of young bush pig and bush buck several times, but the most frequent prey appears to be the red colobus monkey. Jane moves in closer and observes the chimp con man at work.
Goliath is innocently grooming David's eye, while his free hand nears David's toes and steals a piece of David's monkey. Right under David's nose. No detail of chimp behavior is overlooked by Jane, no matter how trivial it may presently seem.
Almost anything she finds may prove of major significance in the search for knowledge of early man. Toward the rainy season, the chimps are found feeding at a termite hill. Using grass stems as fishing rods, they stick them into open termite holes, draw out the clinging insects, and enjoy an especially tasty meal.
Now Jane will be the first scientist able to conclusively prove that untrained chimps not only use, but make tools. After the implement is carefully selected, it will be transformed from an ordinary stem into a crude tool made for a particular purpose. This is the confirmation of tool making Jane has long been seeking. The fact that these chimpanzees use twigs and grasses when feeding on termites was one of the most exciting discoveries I made.
It was known that some wild animals made use of natural objects as tools. But the chimpanzee... when he strips leaves off a twig, is actually modifying a natural object to suit it to a specific purpose.
And he is thus making a tool. According to scientists, early man began at the stage of primate evolution. when the animal creature began to make tools.
Now, after Jane's discovery, Dr. Leakey will say, we must either redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as men. Jane's work will now be recognized by scientists throughout the world. It may stand for all time as a unique record of chimp behavior in the wild. has been able to observe them at closer quarters and in more intimate detail than has ever been managed before.
given Jane Goodall a rare insight into their personal lives. The animals I watched have no real language, do not build shelter, have not discovered fire, yet they are the most nearly human. all the animals on earth. Late in the afternoon one day, a lone chimp with her newborn baby enters the clearing on the Gombe Reserve.
She's been traveling alone and would like to find a companionable group with which to stay. Nervously, she sits apart from the other chimps and waits for a sign of acceptance. Jane names her Melissa and hopes she will be received. Yet at any time... The only stable unit in chimp society is the mother and her child.
The gathers her current chimp language of touch, pleads her case. She indicates her need for reassurance. She is studied and sniffed and considered before a final decision is made.
A candidate for a PhD at Cambridge, Jane today continues her work at the Gombe Reserve. My five years observing the chimps have been the most satisfactory of my life. I've done what I wanted to do from early childhood.
But the work has not yet ended. This is just the beginning, and it is my firm belief that a complete understanding of the behavior of the chimpanzee will eventually lead to man's better understanding of himself. Jane Goodall was one of the first to perceive and report insightfully about The individual personalities of chimpanzees. This approach is basic to her research. And in recent years, she has made us all increasingly aware of the crises facing chimps in their natural habitats.
Not long ago, Goodall spoke quite eloquently on this point. She said, We can try to create a network of conserved ranges throughout Africa where chimpanzees can continue to live their lives, and we can fight the conditions under which they are maintained in captivity. I propose to devote the rest of my life to fighting for these improvements.
I owe it to them. They've given me so much in my life. Now I want to give them as much as I can.
Next time on the Best of National Geographic, we'll explore a different path to another corner of our endlessly rewarding, ever-changing world. I'm Mike Farrell for the National Geographic Society. Wishes to acknowledge Chevron for making possible the National Geographic specials.