Well, first of all, good evening to all of you. Can you hear?
AUDIENCE: No.
Laughter
That's what I thought. Well, I think we'd better start by getting this right. Can we have somebody up here to help with the microphones? Some sound expert? And, could we have the house lights up a little bit so I can see everybody in front of me. Could you put the house lights, can somebody make the mics work?
Laughter
Are we doing any better? Well, this isn't my job.
Laughter
Greetings from Gombe. Chimpanzee noises
Applause
Well, are we doing any better? Can you hear now? No? I can't understand whether you hear or not. There's yes's and no's. How about this? Is that better?
Okay, well, having greeted you with the sound of the chimpanzee from Gombe, let me greet you on my own behalf, it's wonderful to see so many of you here, I just wish I could return to Gonubie and tell the chimpanzees how interested everybody seems to be in their goings-on.
You know, when I was a child, going back a good many years now, I had two dreams. One dream, I wanted to work among, study, live among, learn from animals. And as I grew older and read more and more books, and read Dr. Dolittle and Tarzan, I realized that most of all, I wanted to go to Africa, and work among and learn about African animals. And my second dream, I wanted to write books about them. So, I feel that I've been incredibly fortunate to stand here and look back over my life and realize that to a large extent, my childhood dreams have already been fulfilled.
I've been immensely privileged over thirty years now, to spend time learning about, learning from our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees. Creatures that are so uncannily like us, that they differ genetically by only just over one and a half percent. It's difficult, after thirty years, having learned so much about such a complex being, to try and share with you some of the excitement of those years in one short hour. But, if we can now put the lights out and look at the slides that I've brought, spend a little time forgetting about North America and wandering in the forests of Gombe, maybe you can get something of the feeling of excitement, discovery, and wonder that I've been privileged to share over these thirty years. So if we could put the lights out, and maybe get the slides to work?
Laughter
Can we make these lights go out? On me? Can you put this light-ah that's better. Wonderful, thank you.
Okay, so, Gombe National Park, where I've been for these thirty years, is Tanzania's smallest national park. It's only thirty square miles, it extends along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, which you see here in the foreground, it's an extremely beautiful little park, a jewel of a place, with its thick forests in the valleys, and the more open ridges and peaks in between.
This thick forest, among the trees in the bottoms of the valley, is the kind of place that I used to dream of when I was a child, and indeed, when I got to Gombe, I found that I felt quite at home; it wasn't like going to an alien place, it was like coming back to something I'd known in my dreams.
Can you make this light go out as well? The one behind me? This thing here.
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--display, which is so typical of adult males, is by far the most impressive. During this display, the adult male, and just occasionally a female, will charge across the ground, his hair is bristling, his lips are bunched, he looks ferocious, he stamps his feet, he slaps his hands, he leaps up and drums on a tree trunk, he sways vegetation, he sees a large branch and drags it behind him or hurls it ahead of him, he picks up and throws big rocks. And this threat display serves as the wonderful intimidation. He can very often intimidate a rival without having to resort to physical attack. The male chimps are ordered in a hierarchy for most of the time, and we now know that the young males who have the most frequent displays and the most impressive displays, and we can almost say the most imaginative displays, are the ones who are likely to get to the top early, and to stay there longest.
There is, however, quite a difference among the individual males. Some are much more determined, much more motivated to rise to a high position than others. Goliath, not a large chimp, although his name might imply it, but a courageous individual with a very fast charging--
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By Mike. When I first knew Mike, he was a low-ranking male, middle-aged, like Goliath, he wasn't particularly large, and he was, however, characterized by tremendous motivation to better his social position. At that time, there was an unusual number of adult males, in fact, it was just before the community divided. And there were fourteen adult males, twelve of whom, at that time, were superior to Mike. How was a small, low-ranking, lightweight male to get to the top of such a formidable number of opponents? Well, Mike, not large--
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And, he would keep them with his hands and feet, rattling along ahead of him, as he charged along the trails. Not surprisingly, this noisy behavior intimidated the other males, and so that even those who at the time were superior to him, got out of his way and rushed up the trees. Mike rose to top-ranking position, as far as we know, without one single fight in a period of just four months. Having got to the top, he remained in this alpha position for the next eight years. What I want to emphasize at this point is that every single male had the same opportunity as Mike to use empty cans. Every single male, at one point or another, did use an empty can. Only Mike capitalized on that experience and turned it to his own advantage.
He became a benign ruler. He was quick to break up squabbles among his subordinates, which indeed is one of the roles of the high-ranking males, and by the end of the eight years of his alpha reign, Mike was looking quite old, his teeth were worn, his canines broken, his once glossy black hair had become brown and sparse, and it was very easy for a much large, much younger, much more aggressive male, Humphrey, to topple Mike from his top-ranking position. It was no glorious victory, this, because Humphrey in fact could've defeated Mike physically several years before he actually plucked up courage to do so. Mike, having been toppled from his top position from one single fight, let go the reigns of power very readily, it seemed, he dropped instantly to a very low position in the hierarchy, and he almost seemed relieved in a way because you know it's quite hard to maintain a position at the top of the hierarchy in chimp society.
Well, Humphrey, large, aggressive, in some ways quite a brutal chimp, was not overendowed with intelligence. He only lasted eighteen months. Humphrey was toppled by Flo's second son, Figan. In fact, Humphrey was toppled by a coalition because Figan made use of his close supportive relationship with his brother, Faban, rather as Mike made use of empty cans. Figan, much lighter and smaller than Humphrey, almost never challenged the larger male unless Faban was in the same group. And then, Faban almost always would join him in his charging displays, and the two would charge towards Humphrey one after the other or side by side.
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Blood type can be a blood donor to a human sufferer. How sad it is, that whereas science has pointed to these physical similarities with such eagerness, and said that therefore the chimp makes such a wonderful model for learning about human disease, how sad that they've been so reluctant to admit the equally striking similarities in behavior, and in emotions, and in intellect. It's because of that reluctance to admit these kind of similarities that conditions such as you saw as those labs have been allowed to be in the first place. Conditions which, from the point of view of the chimpanzee inmates, cannot be that dissimilar to some of the concentration camps during the second world war.
Over the thirty years, I think one of the things that's been most fascinating has been to note some of these behavioral, emotional, intellectual similarities between chimps and ourselves. You've seen just some of that tonight. In their behavior, for example, the long period of childhood, the importance of learning in the individual life cycle, the long-term affectionate bonds between family members and between, sometimes, non-related individuals as well, the fact that they cooperate, the fact that their nonverbal communication patterns not only look like ours--kissing, embracing, holding hands, patting one another on the back, swaggering, tickling--but those patterns are shown in the same kind of context that we use them, and undoubtedly mean the same kind of things.
Chimpanzees are capable of true altruism. In the sphere of the emotions, of course, it's very difficult to learn about emotions in another living being, even if I'm trying to study your emotions, you tell me you feel happy, you look like I feel when I feel happy, but I don't know that you feel the same as me. And if we're thinking about emotions in a being that's another species, like a chimpanzee, it's even harder, but even so, I think everybody who's worked closely with chimps will maintain that, almost certainly, they show emotions that are similar, maybe identical, to some of those which we label joy, sorrow, fear, despair, and so on. And certainly, as I said earlier, the emotional needs of a small, infant chimpanzee must be very like those of a small human child.
In the sphere of the intellect, chimps show many cognitive abilities that we used to think absolutely unique to ourselves. They can reason, they can solve simple problems, they have excellent memories, to some extent they can plan for the immediate future, they can understand and use abstract symbols in their communication, and that's been really well demonstrated by the language acquisition experiments, where chimpanzees can readily learn up to three hundred signs, for example, of ASL, American Sign Language. And having learned those signs, they can combine them in novel ways, they can even invent signs, if they haven't been shown one for a certain object. Chimpanzees have a sense of humor. They even have some kind of concept of self.
So, one of the things that emerges from all this information, is that not only do we learn thereby more about the chimpanzee's place in nature, we also learn more about our own place in nature, and it's a little humbling, isn't it? Because we're not quite as different as we used to think. We don't stand in isolated splendor in a pinnacle, separated from the rest of the animal kingdom by an unbridgeable chasm. In many ways, I think that the chimpanzee helps us conceptually to cross that supposed gap. In a way, the chimpanzee acts as a living bridge between man and beast. And having crossed that supposed gap, using the chimpanzee, then I think it must lead to new attitudes towards all the other amazing non-human beings with whom we share the planet. To a new respect for other life forms.
But there's something else, too. And that's, we are indeed a unique species. We may not be as different as we used to think, but we are different. And if I'm asked to pick on one human attribute that has led to the difference that we find between humans and chimpanzees, I would say it was that, at some point in the distant past, our ancestors developed a sophisticated, spoken language. A language which enabled us to discuss the distant past, to make plans for the distant future, to bounce ideas back and forth so that they could grow, to tell our children about things and events that aren't here and now, but which may be in another place at another time. A language which has enabled us to absolutely rely on culture in our daily lives. And through this language, or at least through the course of human evolution, our intellect has developed to such an extent that it dwarfs that of even the most gifted chimpanzee.
Our intellect has led to an increasingly sophisticated technology that began with the industrial revolution. That began because initially, humans were such weak and puny creatures, as they struggled to survive in a hostile world, and used their intellect to do so. A technology that initially enabled us to survive and conquer nature and bend it to our will, and it didn't really matter much because there weren't many of us and there was an awful lot of nature. But we've gone on, haven't we? We've gone on, perfecting our technology, we've gone on increasing in numbers, we've spread over more and more of the planet, and as our technology becomes more sophisticated, and we still have used it to overcome nature, to fight nature. Even beyond the time when we needed it to survive, but we just wanted it for our greedy ends because we became more and more materialistic and selfish. Until that technology has led us to the very brink of total destruction, as we all know.
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An amazing faith in the human species, and I like to think of it this way: that if you go back a hundred, hundred and fifty years, and you just asked ordinary people in the street, "Do you think it'll be possible to build a machine that flies through the air?" "Do you think it's going to be possible to go and walk on the moon?" "Do you think it'll be possible one day to pick up a little instrument and speak into it, and have people on the other side of the world hear and reply?" "Do you think it'll be possible to have pictures flying through the air?" Most people would've said "No, that's science fiction." But we've done all those things, and we've done many more.
And the great hope today is that at last, we've begun to understand the situation we've put ourselves into, with this intellect of ours. And there is a growing awareness around the world, and particularly, on the part of young people, there is a growing desire to help. And what of the chimps? Is there any hope for them? What about the chimps in the labs? Well, at least in the labs, people are beginning to talk of change, they're making plans for new facilities, they're employing people to enrich the environment, the lives of the prisoners sitting in those cages. We're not making very good headway, but there is the beginning of change. In the zoos around the world, chimps are coming out of the old, small, cemented steel-barred prisons into more natural, social groups with much larger enclosures.
And what about in Africa? Well, I showed you some rather disturbing pictures. Little Socrates isn't in that tiny cage anymore. Through the Jane Goodall Institute, we've got a representative out there, a house, cages being built. Socrates is in a much larger cage, being introduced to other young chimps. Whiskey is in that complex, he's off his little chain. There are fifteen chimps there in Burundi, waiting for us to raise money to build a sanctuary. In Zaire, the little chimp that you saw tied on a cage in the market, I was able to go with the American ambassador, persuade the minister of forestry to confiscate the chimp. I cut her rope with my own hand. She's now being cared for by a lady in Kinshasa. In Congo, we have twenty young chimps in the house of an amazing lady, name, they've destroyed her house and garden, but she has eighteen waiting for us to build a sanctuary. And, with the help of a strange helper, but this is Conoco Oil, who care a lot about the environment, they're helping us to build a sanctuary. African governments in countries that I've begun to work in have begun to understand the need for conservation, and yes, they want to conserve, and they want to see some value for themselves and their people for that conservation. Why shouldn't they? They're very economically poor countries, and if we're going to expect them to put aside a large tract of forest which represents economic wealth and foreign exchange for them--selling it as timber--we must show them that there can be other returns. We must help money to come in from rural development, develop controlled tourism, set up agro-forestry programs, help in conservation education, but the African governments are beginning to understand the need for this, and they are very cooperative, if one approaches in the right way.
People often say, "What can I do to help?" Well, there are many ways that people can help. Every person can help in a different way. I would urge any of you who care at all to join our institute, if you didn't pick up a brochure, we have a toll-free number I defy any of you to forget: it's 1-800-999-CHIMP. You can't forget it, you can learn what you can do as a member. And believe you me, every single person can make a difference. I don't know how you can make a difference; you can find that out in your heart. But I do know that every one of us has a part to play, and if we care, whether it's to do with conservation of chimps or forests, improvements of conditions in labs or zoos, or conservation or environmental concerns in general, every one of us has some part to play, and only if we all pull together can we make a difference.
Now, I'm going to end with two quick stories. Stories which, to me, are very symbolic. The first is something that happened just a few months ago at a zoo in Detroit, some of you may have read about it in the newspaper. They opened this brand-new exhibit, there was a moat around it. On the first day, there was a fight that broke out, a female jumped in the water, chimps can't swim, she drowned. They closed the exhibit, they put a safety barrier in the moat, they let the chimps out again. And this chimp, Jojo, male, who'd been in the zoo for years and years, he'd been used or abused as a youngster, dressed up in stupid clothes, smoking cigarettes, chimpanzee tea parties. He was part of the group, and he was attacked by one of the new males brought in from outside, and in his fear not only did he jump in the water, but he managed to get across the safety barrier, and he began to drown. There were three zoo personnel on the far side of the moat. They just watched, because they knew Jojo was one hundred and thirty pounds and that adult chimps can be dangerous. But there was a visitor, Rick Swope, who goes once a year with his family, and he jumped in. The zoo people yelled at him, they told him it was dangerous, they told him to get out of it, he paid no attention. The water was murky, as it'd been raining, he couldn't see, he felt with his hands under the water until he felt Jojo's body. He managed to get over that safety barrier and push him up on the shore of the exhibit, and Jojo lived. And the director of our institute in Tucson called up Rick Swope and he said, "Why did you do that? That was a very brave thing you did, you must've known it was dangerous." And Rick said, "Well, I looked into his eyes, and it was like looking into the eyes of a mah, and the message was, won't anybody help me?" And that's one story with strong symbolic meaning because how often do we stand on the brink of muddy water, and wonder whether or not we dare to jump in?
And the last story, also in a zoo in America, Lion Country Safari in Florida, a chimpanzee, Old Man, rescued from a lab, put on a man-made island with three females, also rescued from abusive backgrounds. A young man, Marc Cusano, employed by the zoo to look after the chimps, was told: "Don't go anywhere near them, they hate people, they're vicious, they'll kill you." So, he did as he was told for a while, and paddled his little boat towards the island, and threw the food onto the shore, but you know, he began to watch those chimps. And he saw how joyful they became when he approached with the food, and how they would then hug and embrace and kiss one another, and pat one another on the back. He saw how very gentle Old Man was with the infant who'd been born to one of the females, and he thought, how can I look after these wonderful beings if I don't have some kind of good relationship with them? So he began going closer and closer, and one day, he held out a banana, and Old Man took it from his hand. And he told me that he felt much as he thought I must've felt when David Greybeard first took a banana from me. And then, came the day when he actually dared step foot on the island, and then, soon after that, he was actually able to make physical contact with Old Man and groom him. And so a friendship grew up, between Marc and Old Man. And then one day, Marc, cleaning the island, slipped. He frightened the infant, who was nearby. The infant screamed, the infant's mother instinctively lept to protect her child and bit Marc's neck, as he lay facedown on the ground. The other two females immediately rushed to help their friend; one bit Marc's wrist, the other his leg. And then, from the far side of the island, Old Man charged over, and Marc thought, this is it. But what happened? Old Man physically pulled each of those females off Marc, and kept them, highly roused and screaming, at bay while Marc gradually pulled himself to the boat in safety. And afterwards, when he came out of hospital, he said to me, "You know, Jane, it's no question. Old Man saved my life." And that's why I feel that this, also, is such a symbolic story, because if a chimpanzee, and a chimpanzee that's been abused by people, can reach out across this species gap to help a human friend in time of need, then surely we humans, with our greater capacity for compassion and understanding, can reach out to help the chimpanzees and the other animals in their time of dire need, can't we? Thank you.