Original subtitles

I think I've read somewhere,

maybe someone told me that when you were a child

you used to dream as a man.

Yeah. I was typically a man,

I went on adventures.

How come?

Probably because at the time

I wanted to do things which men did

and women didn't.

You know going to Africa,

living with animals,

that's all I ever thought about.

Everything led in the most natural way.

It seems now,

to that magical invitation to Africa in 1957

where I would meet Dr. Louis Leakey,

who had sent me on my way to Gombe and the chimpanzees.

I had no training, no degree.

But Louis didn't care about academic credentials.

What he was looking for was someone with an open mind,

with a passion for knowledge,

with a love of animals, and with monumental patience.

My mission was to get close to the chimpanzees,

to live among them, to be accepted.

I wanted to come as close

to talking to animals as I could.

To be like Doctor Doolittle.

I wanted to move among them without fear, like Tarzan.

The huge, gnarled, and ancient trees,

the little streams chuckling their way through

rocky pathways to the lake.

The birds. The insects.

Since I was eight or nine years old,

I had dreamed of being in Africa,

of living in the bush among wild animals.

And suddenly,

I found I was actually living in my dream.

I already felt that I belonged to this new forest world.

That this was where I was meant to be.

When I arrived in Gombe,

I had no idea what I was going to do

except that I was going to try

and get the chimpanzees used to me,

so that I could really learn about what they were doing.

That was-- that was in the back of my mind

because I'd watched other animals,

and the only way to learn about them

is when they know you're there, but they ignore you.

Except they can rip your face off.

Well, I didn't know that.

I didn't think about that!

There was nobody talking about that.

There was no fear of chimpanzees in the wild?

You have to realize that back then,

there were no people out in the field

whose research I could read about

except this one man,

and he saw chimps once or maybe twice

in the three months of his study.

And then much earlier on,

there was this crazy man

who painted himself with baboon shit, I think,

and sat in hides, in hopes that chimps would appear.

There were plenty of snakes, many poisonous snakes.

And to be honest,

I always believed that if you walk carefully,

you don't startle a snake,

you don't tread on it,

they're not going to hurt you.

I had this probably crazy feeling.

"Nothing's going to hurt me, I'm meant to be here."

I watched them feeding in a large fig tree.

Calling noisily from time to time.

The trees came alive.

And so began one of the most exciting periods of my life.

The time of discovery.

My life fell into a rhythm.

Day after day.

In the sun, and the wind and the rain.

I climbed into the hills

and stayed with the chimps from dawn...

until darkness fell.

Most times I would encounter a group of chimps

or a single chimp,

but there were times when I couldn't find them at all.

And when I tried to get closer,

they ran off as soon as they saw me.

I was an intruder.

And a strange one at that.

As I am not a defeatist,

it only made my determination to succeed stronger.

I never had any thought of quitting.

I should forever have lost all self respect

if I had given up.

I became totally absorbed into this forest existence.

I could give myself up to the sheer pleasure

of being on my own in the rugged terrain

that I was coming to know as well as I had known

the Bournemouth cliffs as a child.

It was an unparalleled period.

When aloneness was a way of life.

And even as I was, bit by bit,

piecing together something of their way of life,

so they were getting used to the sight

of the strange white ape.

In those days,

it was not thought at all safe for a young, single girl

to go into the wilds of Africa.

I had to choose a companion.

It was my mother who volunteered.

Mom set up a clinic.

She handed out medicine

to many of the local fisherman.

Patients would walk for miles to get treatment.

What was your relationship like with your father?

I didn't really know my father.

He went off to the war.

When war broke out, I was five

and of course I hugely admired him,

but he didn't really care about children.

So, I couldn't say I had a relationship with him.

I think the most important part about my mother

was that she listened.

She was always fair.

She was never angry without a reason.

She supported me and my love of animals.

She never said, "Well, you're just a girl. You can't do that.

Why don't you dream about something you can achieve?"

Which is what everybody else told me.

So it was my mother who really built up my self-esteem.

Like most children before the age of TV and computer games,

I loved being outside.

Playing in the secret places in the garden,

learning about nature.

I spent many hours high above the ground

at the top of my favorite tree and I would read up there

in my own leafy and private world.

It was daydreaming about life in the forest with Tarzan

that lead to my determination to go to Africa

to live with animals and write books about them.

I never had any aspiration of being married

and having a family.

It just didn't come into my way of thinking.

It simply wasn't there.

You know, going to Africa, living with animals.

That's all I ever thought about.

We were by no means a wealthy family,

so university wasn't an option.

But I still wanted to work with animals

in some far off place.

I got a job as a waitress.

I saved my wages and my tips, every penny I could...

to get me to Africa.

But even though I was living my childhood dream,

I couldn't help but be concerned

because I couldn't get close to the chimps.

I didn't know if they would ever get used to me.

And time was running out.

How frustrating was it

trying to study them in those early days?

It was probably mostly frustrating

because they kept running away.

And while chimpanzees are running away from you,

you can't really get down to the details of their behavior

and in the back of my mind it was always the fear

if I don't find out something exciting.

The money will run out 'cause all my earlier observations

were either chimps close up running away,

or sitting on the peak or some other spot

and watching them through binoculars.

And so, you know,

from those early observations it was very clear

that I wasn't really learning anything much.

I'd been in Gombe for five months.

It had been a frustrating morning.

I had tramped up and down three different valleys in search of chimps,

but had found none.

I soon recognized the adult male

less fearful than the others

whom I already knew by sight

because of the distinctive white hair on his chin.

And unlike the others,

he didn't run.

After months of patient and tireless observation,

I had been rewarded.

The chimps had accepted me.

And gradually I was able to penetrate further and further

into a magic world that no human had explored before.

The world of the wild chimpanzees.

Finally, I was allowed to observe the chimpanzees closely.

I learned that chimpanzees

spend long hours in grooming sessions.

They, like us, need friendly contact

and reassurance.

As I got to know them as individuals, I named them.

David Greybeard, with his calm and dignified personality

and often he was accompanied

by the top ranking male at the time, Goliath.

Mr. McGregor, a somewhat belligerent old male,

and then there was Flo,

with her bulbous nose and ragged ears

along with her infant daughter, Fifi.

Staring into the eyes of a chimpanzee,

I saw a thinking,

reasoning personality looking back.

I was learning from some of the most fascinating creatures of our times.

And I realized that they were all part of one group.

A community.

And the more I learned,

the more I realized how like us they were...

in so many ways.

At that time in the early 1960's,

it was held at least by many scientists

that only humans had minds.

Only humans were capable of rational thought.

Fortunately, I had not been to university,

and I did not know these things.

I felt very much as though

I was learning about fellow beings

capable of joy and sorrow, fear, and jealousy.

Louis Leakey sent me to Gombe

because he believed that an understanding

of chimpanzees in the wild

would help him to better guess how our Stone Age ancestors

may have behaved.

It had long been thought

that we were the only creatures on Earth

that used and made tools.

"Man, the Toolmaker" is how we were defined.

And here was David Greybeard using a tool.

It was hard for me to believe what I had seen.

A few days later,

I watched spellbound as chimps set off to a termite mound,

picked a small leafy twig,

then stripped it of its leaves.

That was object modification.

The crude beginning of tool making.

It had never been seen before.

When I telegrammed the news to Louis Leakey

he responded that "We must now redefine man

or accept chimpanzee's as human."

My observations at Gombe

would challenge human uniqueness

and whenever that happens

there is always a violent uproar.

There were some who would try to discredit my observations

because I was a young, untrained girl

and should, therefore, be disregarded.

The result of it all, however,

was that Louis was able to obtain a grant

from the National Geographic Society

to continue my study.

In addition, they would be sending out a photographer

to document the chimpanzees.

Hi, I'm Jane.

Hugo.

Jane, for someone who enjoyed your solitude,

were you concerned about

bringing another person into your...

Yeah.

No, I wasn't particularly happy, but it was part of the deal.

Geographic funds you.

They must cover the research.

It was my project.

And he came to, you know, document my project.

And I just didn't want anybody

coming into my little paradise.

What were your first impressions of Hugo?

Well, Hugo smoked.

He almost chain smoked.

And all the butts on the floor, and the--

Oh, I've always hated smoking.

And he was a perfectionist.

It drove me nuts.

But at the same time, you know,

he was a nice looking guy and his voice was quiet.

The first evening Hugo spent telling me

about the films that he'd made and his childhood

and how he'd always wanted to photograph animals.

So we had a lot in common.

And I think it was pretty obvious to me right from the start

that I was a subject of interest

as well as the chimps.

One day, we were greeted with fantastic news.

A chimp had crept into my tent

and had taken some bananas left from my supper.

Perhaps he would come again.

And so the next day, Hugo and I waited.

As the hours went by,

I began to fear that the chimp wouldn't come.

Then a black shape appeared on the other side of the clearing.

I recognized him at once.

It was David Greybeard.

I could hardly believe it.

For months the chimps had been running off when they saw me.

Now one had actually visited my camp.

After that I always had a supply of bananas ready.

The chimps often came to camp looking for bananas.

And gradually they allowed me to get closer and closer.

It was absolutely thrilling

to have the chimpanzees so close,

but the bananas feedings were not without problems.

As they lost their fear of us,

the chimps quickly proved to be unconscionable thieves.

They would steal blankets,

cloths from the kitchen, shirts and pillows,

and cardboard boxes; wonderful things to chew on.

No longer did the chimpanzees arrive in small quiet parties.

Instead, they invaded our camp in huge groups

and aggressive competition between chimpanzees increased.

Occasionally, we had to seek shelter.

And the aggression became more serious.

In order to stop the aggression,

we decided to create the feeding station.

With the hope that it would control their aggressive tendencies

and bring peace.

Now, using hand operated steel boxes,

we could manage the feeding in an organized way.

As a result,

we were able to make closer observations than ever before.

Old Flo was easy to identify,

she had a bulbous nose and ragged ears.

Flo was the top ranked female of her community

and could dominate all the other females.

But none of the adult males.

For in chimpanzee society, males are the dominant sex.

One day she came to camp

with a pink swelling on her backside.

It was a sign that she was ready for mating.

Many of the males quickly realized

and began their pursuit.

She was followed by a long line of suitors.

It was from Flo that I first learned

that in the wild female chimps

do not just have one mate.

She allowed them all to mate with her.

And Fifi hated it.

It must have been exciting

to have been joined by someone who shared your passions.

No, that's right.

We both loved being out in nature

and we both loved the work we were doing.

We just got on very well.

Hugo's time in Gombe was almost over.

I cared for him, and I knew that I would miss him,

but then after he had left, I received a telegram.

When you and Hugo decided to get married,

what were your plans?

You know honestly, we didn't make long term plans,

we really didn't.

We just wanted to go back to Gombe and make films.

When we returned to Gombe, there was wonderful news.

Flo gave birth to a son.

I called him Flint.

When Flint was born,

it gave Hugo and I the opportunity

to initiate a study that could last 50 years.

And it was the first time an infant chimpanzee

and the relationship between parent and child

could be observed so closely in the wild.

As a mother, Flo was affectionate,

tolerant, and nurturing

and used distraction rather than punishment

to teach her small infant.

Fifi soon became utterly preoccupied with her infant brother.

She tried to handle him.

But Flo very gently prevented her.

Eventually though, as soon as she was allowed

she played with him, groomed him,

and carried him around.

Indeed, she became a real help to her mother.

What was it about Flo that you admired?

Well, she was all things that a chimp mother should be.

She was protective, but not over protective.

She was affectionate, she was playful,

but being supportive.

That was the key ,

and of course that is what my mother was.

She supported me.

And there's no question

that those close contacts with Flo and her family

were very important to my own development.

It was just so amazing

to have this sort of relationship.

Together, the chimpanzees and the birds and the insects,

the teeming life of the vibrant forest,

formed one whole.

All part of the great mystery.

And I was part of it too.

All the time, I was getting closer to animals and nature

and as a result, closer to myself

and more in tune with the spiritual power

that I felt all around.

I thought, as I have so often since,

what an amazing privilege it was

to be utterly accepted thus

by a wild, free animal.

Truth is stranger than fiction

and fiction can be transformed into prophecy.

Here we have a perfect example of that evolution,

with this lovely English lady called Jane

and likewise traded her comfortable home in England

for the primitive life of the African wilderness

among the African apes.

And now I give myself the rewarding pleasure

of presenting to you Miss Jane Goodall.

David Graybeard is a chimpanzee

who has put his complete trust in man.

Surely, it's up to us

to see that, at least, some of these nearly human creatures

survive in their natural habitat.

Jane Goodall tall, blonde and beautiful.

Jane Goodall living with the chimpanzees

in the wilds of Africa...

I was the Geographic covergirl.

And people said well my fame was due to my legs.

Well, I mean, it was so stupid, it didn't bother me.

It was really very useful

because by this time I was needing to raise money myself,

so I made use of it.

Hugo and I successfully applied

for additional funding,

to build up a research station in Gombe.

And we accepted students

so that we could take advantage

of the increased opportunity for collecting data.

Jane Goodall came back from Africa

just a few weeks ago.

Since then, she's been traveling around Europe and across America,

telling zoologists.

It is a very great pleasure for Hugo and me

to be with you here tonight.

Dr. Goodall and her husband

have been filming and studying the behavior of chimpanzees.

...to film her studies and they later married.

She and her husband, Baron Hugo van Lawick,

are now the leading experts in the study of chimpanzees,

their research station in Gombe in Tanzania.

I am absolutely full of admiration

for somebody who can go and live alone in a jungle

and do this sort of work that you did.

Were you ever really very frightened?

Sometimes I was frightened,

especially of things like leopards,

but it was the kind of life

I had always dreamed of myself living.

And it was so fascinating that nothing could deter me.

What about the actual significance of the studies?

We feel quite strongly that one of the goals

of continuing new work

is to increasingly relate our understanding

of chimpanzee behavior to human behavior.

How long are you going to be associated

with the chimpanzees?

Oh I should say it's a rough guess until I die,

but I can't tell you how many years that will be.

But I think one of the most valuable things

has been this film record which has been kept

and we are hoping that Hugo will be able

to come back and carry on.

Especially as the last three months gave such fantastic film,

better than all the rest put together.

It seems to me vitally important that somebody should be there.

I think the Committee would disagree that that's essential.

Hugo, would you like to say anything about the filming? The problems?

Uh, no.

Unless there's something else to discuss,

we will adjourn the meeting.

Geographic ended the funding for Hugo just like that.

But it was always an assignment

and assignments, when you're a cameraman, come to an end.

It was very upsetting.

Unfortunate and sad.

And it was like, well, what do we do? You know, how do we?

'Cause I wanted to go on at Gombe and he couldn't.

It was simple like that.

So then I had to change everything actually.

We had to find other work to do.

Which we did, of course.

On the Serengeti.

We had students at Gombe

and we used to talk to them on the radio telephone

just about every day, I think.

So, I would write books.

And Hugo would make films.

Was it difficult for you not to be in Gombe?

Well, because I had a jolly good team of students at Gombe

and I heard what was happening all the time,

it wasn't too bad at all.

I had all this finding out to do.

So, I was getting on with writing

and I was able to watch other animals

and that gave me a wider perspective.

I understood more animals better

than if I hadn't left Gombe.

From the moment when we stood on the Serengeti plains,

it had been as though an unseen hand

had drawn back a curtain.

The mystery of evolution was all around us.

I was awed by the beauty.

We didn't sit down and talk about shall we have children

or anything like that.

But Grub came along so, that was that.

It was just one of the things that happened, you know.

You got married and you got pregnant,

and you had a baby.

I don't remember contemplating

what this would do to me, what it would do to us,

how it would be,

but the idea of having a baby after Flo had a baby

and I thought I would watch my baby

and see the difference.

And of course, Grub would be with us on the Serengeti.

I had planned to do a decent study

and keep notes and everything,

watching for the development stages in Grub,

just as I had done with the chimps.

And capturing it on film seemed a jolly good idea,

but it doesn't work with your own child.

I just found that I didn't want to do it,

I wanted just to be there in the moment.

For the first three years of his life,

I wasn't away one single night.

I was always there.

Of course, like all mothers,

I wanted to give my son the best possible start in life,

and I had to choose between various sources of advice.

There was my own mother,

there was Dr. Spock, and there was Flo.

There is no doubt that my observations of the chimpanzees

helped me to be a better mother.

But I found also that the experience of being myself a mother

helped me better understand chimpanzee maternal behavior.

It was not until Grub came along, for example,

that I began to understand

the basic powerful instincts of mother love.

How much more easily I could now understand

the feelings of a chimpanzee mother

who furiously waved her arms and barked out threats

to any who approached her infant too closely.

When Grub was little,

it was dangerous for him at Gombe.

Chimpanzees eat other primates.

We are a primate.

They have been known to take infant humans.

I wasn't going to risk my little precious son.

So when we went to Gombe, it was a cage.

It had been made at a time

when some of the chimps became

very aggressive towards Hugo.

And so Grub sat in a cage.

But it was painted blue

and there were mobiles hanging down

and it was very lovely.

I had thought that I could raise a child

and carry on with my work at the same time.

It was not so.

I stopped following the chimps,

the students and field staff did that.

I merely administered the research station.

Eventually, we spent the bulk of our time

working on the Serengeti.

I was Hugo's assistant and I was mother to Grub.

From Nairobi, in a small bush plane

it's a two hour flight to en Dudu Tanzania.

Our purpose was to meet Grub,

the three and a half year old son of Doctor Jane Goodall

and Hugo van Lawick.

Born and raised in Africa,

who speaks to animals, English to his parents,

and perfect Swahili to his only playmate,

a 40-year-old African.

This child has spent three quarters of his life in Africa,

and I don't mean in a Nairobian cities.

I mean in really remote areas.

You'll make a sound for me?

What does a zebra say, Grub?

A bit louder.

That's right. And what about a hyena?

That's a beauty. And a lion?

Tell me some stories about raising a child here, Hugo.

Well, one of the first things we had to do

when he was tiny

was teach him of the dangers in the bush,

so we showed them to him and say, "Ow, ow,"

and teach him that he was to stay away from these animals.

Did you learn anything from watching chimps and raising children?

I'm told that a chimp baby is just given so much love.

Is that a good, do you think you could transfer that to our lives?

Does it have a meaning?

With Grub, we gave him immense amounts of love and security,

and everyone said, "Oh, he'll be so dependent on you.

He'll never make his own way in the world."

It seems to myself, the opposite.

When he reaches six,

Grublin will have to be taken to England for schooling.

I hope, in the process of being educated,

he never forgets what he has already learned.

Hello, hello, hello.

Any news with you? Any news with you? Over.

I just talked to...

and I think they're coming. Over.

Okay, okay, have received you.

I'll be joining you soon.

Over and out, over and out.

It was a horrible time, one after the other.

Chimpanzees came in, dragging limbs.

Some of them were okay.

But McGregor...

both legs gone.

Unable to use even one arm.

It was awful.

We immediately found that we could vaccinate the chimps.

It was a bit late,

but maybe it would have gone on if we hadn't.

But, McGregor...

he had to be shot.

Did someone say, "Let nature take its course?"

Sorry.

I didn't care what anybody said.

I was going to help the chimps if I could.

I couldn't watch an animal suffering

anymore than I could watch a human suffering

and not help if I could.

I see no difference

between helping a human and helping an animal.

I mean, yes we could have gone on and fed him every day

and kept him alive for what reason?

To be honest, if that happens to me,

I do not wish to be kept alive either.

Were you ever concerned that you might've carried it in?

No.

The first examples of polio were not from our chimps.

They were way to the south,

and that's where the human polio was.

So I didn't feel responsible for introducing it.

Although, for sure, it could pass on more

because they were coming together.

But it didn't start with us

which was-- which was very reassuring, actually.

After the incident,

it was no longer permitted to touch the chimpanzees.

Gombe would never be quite the same.

I wanted nothing more than to be with the chimpanzees,

and I made the decision to spend more time in Gombe.

Grub stayed with me.

So in the morning, I would do analysis of data,

administration, that sort of thing.

And then I would spend about one to two hours up in a chimp camp

with the students and looking at the chimps.

And then every afternoon was his, totally.

And he loved chimpanzees?

No, he did not. He hated them.

He's never loved chimpanzees.

And around him, the leaves are changing color and falling.

I tried to home school him.

"Look, Aunt Flo."

That's funny, isn't it?

"Aunt Flo."

I felt a bit isolated at that time.

-"B." -That's right.

But there were always

one or two students who would come along

and provide that sort of, you know,

emotional support that I think sometimes is very important.

And of course Hugo was away somewhere else filming

so he wasn't there to-- to help.

I mean that was the deal, that was his work.

Flint was now an adolescent.

And old Flo...

Hello, Flo.

She was now a grandmother.

Hello, Flo.

Fifi had an infant of her own.

A new generation of Flo's family to study.

But even though he was at an age

when most males begin to spend time away from their mothers,

Flint was still dependent on Flo.

By this time, she must've been close to 50 years old.

But Flint insisted on riding her back.

Flint was still suckling.

Flo would push him away,

and he cried, and he screamed, and he got very, very clingy

and very, very dependent.

She was too old to push him to independence.

You more than anyone knew the importance of socialization.

Were you concerned about Grub?

Well, Grub was school age,

and I couldn't go on homeschooling him anymore.

So, it was decided that he would start school in England

and live with Mom.

And I quite well remember when I had to leave him.

And how awful and betraying I felt.

But it was better for Grub.

In Christmas and Spring, I went to the UK.

In the summer, he came out to Tanzania.

Back at Gombe now, Dr. Goodall,

what kind of enterprise is it today?

Well today, it's the Gombe Stream Research Center.

There are anything between six and twelve scientists

working on different aspects of chimp or baboon behavior.

And there are also students studying for their PhD degrees

or doing post doctoral work on specific aspects of chimp behavior,

which, you know, it's quite a big little scientific community.

Flo died as she crossed

the clear, fast-flowing Kokombe stream.

She looked so peaceful.

It was as if her heart had suddenly just stopped beating.

Flint sat on the bank of the stream near Flo's body.

From time to time he approached her

as though begging her to groom him,

to comfort him as she had always done throughout his life.

Finally, Flint moved away.

His depression worsened.

He stopped eating.

He stayed mostly alone.

And in this state of grief, he fell sick.

It was as though without his mother,

he no longer had the will to live.

And about three weeks after Flo died,

Flint died, too.

After the death of Flo,

the chimpanzee community,

whose members I had come to know so well,

began to divide.

As chimps of one group started to spend more time

in the southern part of the range

over which the whole community roamed.

By separating themselves,

it was as though they had forfeited their right

to be treated as community members.

Instead, they were treated as strangers.

Our idyllic world, our little paradise,

had been turned upside down.

The once peaceful seeming chimpanzees

were heavily engaged

in what amounted to a sort of primitive warfare.

The entire community that moved south was annihilated.

It must have been a very dark time for you.

It was a very, very dark time, it was.

I thought they were like us, but nicer than us.

I had no idea of the brutality that they can show.

Took me awhile to come to terms with that.

War had always seemed to me

to be a purely human behavior.

I had come to accept that the dark and evil side of human nature

was deeply embedded in our genes,

inherited from our ancient primate ancestors.

You and Hugo had been in different places.

Did you feel yourselves drifting apart?

Well, you do drift apart

when you're in two different places

and you have different goals in a way.

Hugo wasn't anymore content

with just being at Gombe for me,

he needed to be in the Serengeti for him.

Were you struggling to try and keep the marriage together?

Well for Grub's sake, but

we'd begun bickering by then,

and so you have to weigh up,

you know, is it better to stay together

or to subject your child to constant bickerings.

He wanted me to leave Gombe,

because there was no way he could stay and work,

but I couldn't.

It was my life, and he had his.

During the trying time of my divorce,

it was all very sad.

Especially for Grub, for he, of course, loved us both.

But I realized that my experience in the forest had given me perspective.

In the forest, death is not hidden,

it's all around you, all the time.

A part of the endless cycle of life.

Chimpanzees are born, they grow older,

they get sick, and they die.

And always there are the young ones

that carry on the life of the species.

Louis Leakey sent me to Gombe

with the hope that a better understanding of chimpanzee behavior

might provide us with a window on our past.

Our study of the chimpanzees had helped to pinpoint

not only the similarities between them and us,

but also those ways in which we are most different.

Admittedly, we're not the only beings with personalities,

reasoning powers, altruism, and emotions,

nor are we the only beings capable of mental

as well as physical suffering.

But our intellect has grown mightily in complexity

since the first true men branched off from the ape men's stalk

some two million years ago.

And we, and only we,

have developed a sophisticated spoken language.

For the first time in evolution,

a species evolved that was able to teach its young

about objects and events not present,

to pass on wisdom gleaned from the successes

and the mistakes of the past.

With language we can ask as can no other living being,

those questions about who we are and why we are here.

And this highly developed intellect means surely,

that we have a responsibility towards the other life forms of our planet,

whose continued existence is threatened

by the thoughtless behavior of our own human species.

My life, at the time, was perfect.

I was spending time in the field.

I was writing a book.

I had students so the research was secure

and I could be with my son.

It was my life for the rest of my life?

It was better than anything I dreamed of.

But I knew that the chimpanzees across Africa were disappearing.

So that's when I realized that I had to raise awareness

about the plight of chimps in Africa

and the role that I must play

is to make sure that the next generation

are better stewards than we've been.

And I needed to take that message to the world.

And since that time, that was October 1986,

I haven't been more than three weeks consecutively in any one place.

When I look back over my life,

it seems I've been extraordinarily lucky.

Although as my mother Vanne always says,

luck was only part of the story.

She's always believed that success comes through determination and hard work

and that the fault is not in our stars,

but in ourselves that we are underlings.

I certainly believe that's true.

Yet though I had worked hard all my life,

I must admit that the stars

seemed to have played their part, too.