Jane Goodall: An Inside Look (Full Episode) | National Geographic

for for e [Music] [Music] 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 probably because at the time I wanted to do things which men did and women didn't you know going to 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 LS leaki who would set me on my way to gomi in the chimpanzees I had no training no degree but Lis 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 gym andas to live among them to be accepted I wanted to come as close close to talking to animals as I could to be like Dr dittle I wanted to move among them without fear like Tarzan [Music] the huge nled and ancient trees the little streams chuckling their way through Rocky Pathways to the lake the birds the insects since I was eight or 9 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 [Music] dream I already felt that I belonged to this new Forest world but this was where I was meant to be [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when I arrived in gombi 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 watched other animals and the only way to learn about them is when they know you're there but they ignore you except they could 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 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 I think and sat in hides and hoped chimps would appear there were plenty of snakes many poisonous snakes and to be honest I always believe 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 have this probably crazy feeling nothing's going to hurt me I'm meant to be here [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I watched the feeding in a large fig tree calling noisily from time to time the trees came [Applause] [Music] alive and so began one of the most exciting periods of my life the time of discovery [Music] [Music] my life fell into a rhythm day after day in the sun and the wind and the rain I've 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 of that as I'm 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 [Music] 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 [Music] life and even as I was bit by bit piecing together something of their way of life they were getting used to the sight of this strange white ape [Music] 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 [Music] mom set up a clinic she handed out medicine to many of the local fishermen patients would walk for miles to get [Music] 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 in 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 [Music] self-esteem like most children before the age of TV and computer games I love 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 Taran that led 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 [Music] but I still wanted to work with animals in some far off place I got a job as a waitress I save my wages and my tips every penny I could to get me to [Music] 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 [Music] I didn't know if they would ever get used to me and time was running out [Music] [Music] 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 at the back of my mind it was always the fear if I don't find out something exciting the money will run up out cuz all my earlier observations uh were either chimps closeup running away or sitting on the peak or some other uh spot and watching them through binoculars and so you know from from those early observations it was very clear that that I wasn't really learning anything much I'd been in gombi for 5 months it had been a frustrating morning I tramped up and down three different valleys in search of chimps but i' 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 [Music] what [Music] after months of patient and tireless observation I'd 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 [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 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 m 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 [Music] I was learning from some of the most fascinating creatures of our times and I realized that they were all part of of one [Music] group a [Music] community and the more I learned the more I realized how like us they were in so many ways [Music] at that time in the early 1960s it was held at least by many scientists that only humans had Minds only humans were capable of rational thought fortunately I'd 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 help a [Music] [Applause] [Music] Louis leaky sent me to gomi 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 tool maker is how we were defined and here was David greybeard using a tool it was hard for me to believe what I'd seen a few days later I watched Spellbound as chimp 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 [Music] [Applause] when I telegrammed the news to Lis leaky he responded that we must now redefine man or accept chimpanzees as human my observations at gbi would challenge human uniqueness and whenever that happens there is always a violent uproar there were some who had tried to discredit my observations because I was a young untrained girl and should therefore be [Music] disregarded the result of it all however was that leis 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 [Music] hi I'm James you girl Jane for someone who enjoyed your Solitude were you concerned about bringing another person into your no I wasn't particularly happy but it was part of the deal Geographic funds you they must cover the research was my project and he came to you know document my project and I just didn't want anybody coming into my little [Music] Paradise what were your first 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 drove me nuts but at the same time you know he was a nice looking guy and he his voice was quiet the first evening Hugo spent telling me about the films that he'd made in his childhood and how he'd always wanted to photograph animals so we had a lot in [Music] 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 [Music] [Music] one day we were greeted with fantastic news a chimp had crept into my tent and had taken some bananas left for my supper perhaps he would come again and so the next day hugar 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 graveyard I could hardly believe it for months The Chimps had been running off when they saw me now one had actually visited my [Music] Camp after that I always had a supply of bananas ready [Music] chimps often came to Camp looking for [Music] bananas and gradually they allowed me to get closer and closer ah [Music] it was absolutely thrilling to have the chimpanzees so close but the banana feed ings were not without [Music] 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 [Applause] [Music] no longer did the chimpanzees arrive in small quiet parties instead they invaded our camp in huge groups and aggressive competition between chimpanzees increased [Music] occasionally we had to seek shelter and the aggression became more serious [Music] [Music] [Music] 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 [Music] peace now using hand operated steel boxes we could manage the feeding in an organized [Music] way as a result we were able to make closer observations than ever [Music] 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 of 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 [Music] she was followed by a long line of [Music] sutors it was from Flo that I first learned that in the wild female chimps do not have just one mate she allowed them all to mate with her and beefy hated [Music] it it must have been exciting to have been joined by someone who shared your passions no that's right we both love being out in nature and we both loved the work we were doing we just got on very well [Music] Hugo's time in gomi 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 [Music] for [Music] 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 gomi and make films when we returned to gomi it was wonderful [Music] news Flo gave birth to a son I called him Flint [Music] when Flint was born it gave hugar 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 [Music] as a mother Flo was affectionate tolerant and nurturing and use 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 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what was it about flow that you admired well she was old things that are ch should be she was protective but not overprotective she was affectionate she was playful but being supportive that was the key and of course that's what my mother was she supported me and there's no question but 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 [Music] up [Music] [Music] together the chimpanzees and the birds and insects the teeming life of the vibrant Forest formed one hole 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 [Music] you [Music] 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 propy here we have a perfect example of that Evolution well this lovely English lady called Jane had likewise traded her comfortable home in England for the Primitive life of the African Wilderness among the African Apes I now give myself the rewarding pleasure of presenting to you Miss Jane goodal David graveyard 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 [Music] habitat blond and beautiful living with the chimpanzees in the Wilds of Africa I was the geographic Cover Girl and people said well my fame was due to my legs well I mean it was so stupid didn't bother me was really very useful because by this time I was needing to raise money myself so I made use of it Huka and I successfully applied for additional funding to build up a research station in [Music] gomi and we accepted students so that we could take advantage of the increased opportunity for collecting data P all came back from Africa just a few weeks ago since then she's been traveling around Europe and across America telling zoologist a very great pleasure for Hugo and me to be with you here tonight Dr good and her husband have been filming and studying the behavior of chimpanzees and cl Afric to film her studies and they later married she and her husband Baron Hugo f laav are now the leading experts in the study of chimpanzees their research station in G in Tanzania I'm absolutely full of admiration for somebody who can go and live alone in a jungle and do the 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'd 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 the work is to increasingly relate our understanding of chimpanzee Behavior to human behavior how long are you going to be associated with the chimpanzee well I should say it's a rough guess until I die but I can't tell you how many years that will [Music] be I think one of the most valuable things has been this film record which has been kept and we're hoping that Hugo Bell to come back and carry on especially as the last 3 months gave such fantastic film better than all the rest put together it seems to me vitally important that some should be there I think the committee disagrees that That's essential Huga would you like to say anything to Dr Filman problem um no unless it's something else to discuss we'll adjourn the meeting do that 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 cuz I want to go on at Gumi 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 seretti we had students at gomi we used to talk to them on the radio telephone just about every day I think so I would write books and you would make films was it difficult for you not to be in gambi well because I had a jolly good team of students at comi 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 gbi [Music] [Music] from the moment when we stood on the serengetti plane it had been as though an unseen hand had drawn back a [Music] curtain the mystery of evolution was all around us I was AED by the beauty [Music] 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 serengetti 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 gimps and capturing it on film seemed a jully good idea but doesn't work with your own child I just found 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 flow [Music] 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 furiously waved her arms and barked out threats to any who approached her infant too closely when Rob was little it was dangerous for him at gomi chimpanzees eat um other primates we are a primate they have been known to take infant humans I was going to risk my little precious son so when we went to gbi 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 pink and blue and there were mobiles hanging down 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 [Music] station eventually we spent the bulk of our time working in the serengetti I was Hugo's assistant and I was Mother to Grub from Nairobi in a small bush plane it's a 2-hour flight to Udo Tanzania our purpose was to meet grub the three and a half-year-old son of Dr 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 spent three4 of his life in Africa and I don't mean in nairobian cities I me I mean in really remote areas you you'll make a sound for me what does a zebra say grub bit louder that's right and what about a Hena that's a beauty in Al larm tell me some stories about raising the child here Hugo one of the first things we had to do when when he was Tiny was teach him of the dangers in the bush so we chose show 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 has just given so much love that's absolutely true is that a good do you think you can transfer that to our lives does it have a meaning with grab we gave him immense amounts of love and security and everyone said oh you'll be so dependent on you he'll never make his own way in the world you seem to yourself the opposite when he reaches six grublin will have to be taken to England for schooling I hope in the process of being Ed educated he never forgets what he has already learned [Music] [Music] hello hello hello any news with you any news with you [Music] over okay okay have received you I'll be joining you soon over and out over and out [Music] it was a horrible time one after the other chimpanzees came in dragging limbs FR think were're 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 [Music] [Music] McGregor he had to be short 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 any more 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 [Music] either were you ever concerned that you might have carried it in no the first examples of P were not from our chimps they were way to the South and that's where the human polio was so I don'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 is which was very reassuring actually [Music] after the incident it was no longer permitted to touch the chimpanzees gombi would never be quite the same [Music] I wanted nothing more than to be with the chimpanzees and I make a decision to spend more time in gomi 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 the chimp camp with the students and looking at the chimps and then every afterno was his totally and he loved chimpanzees no he did not he hated them he's never loved [Music] chimpanzees around the leaves of changing color falling I tried to homeschool him look Aunt Flo that's funny isn't it Aunt Flo I felt a bit isolated at that time see 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 he goes away somewhere else filming so he wasn't there to to help I mean that was the deal that was his work [Music] die [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] Flint was now an adolescent an old Flo FL flu she was now grandmother flu [Music] flu fi had an infant of her own a new generation that flows family to [Music] 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 [Music] Flow by this time she must have been close to 50 years old 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 clean and very very [Music] 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 schooling in England and live with [Music] Mom and I quite well remember when I had to leave him and how awful and betraying I felt but it was better for GR [Music] in Christmas and spring I went to the UK in the summer he came out to [Music] Tania back at g Dr good what kind of Enterprise is it today well today it's the gomi stream Research Center there are anything between six and 12 scientists working on different asp ects of chimple Bon behavior and there are also students studying for their PHD degrees or doing post-doctoral work on specific aspect of chimp Behavior it's you know it's quite a big little scientific community [Music] n [Music] Flo died as she crossed the clear fast flowing kakomi 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 [Music] finally Flint moved [Music] away his depression worsened he stopped eating he stayed mostly alone and in this state of grief he fell [Music] sick it was as though without his mother he no longer had the will to live and about 3 weeks after Flo died Flint died too [Music] 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 forfeited their right to be treated as community members instead they were treated as strangers [Music] w [Music] our idilic world our little Paradise have been turned upside [Music] down the once peaceful seeming chimpanzees were heavily engaged in water mounted to a sort of primitive Warfare the entire community that moved South was [Music] [Music] annihilated 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 a while to come to terms with [Music] that war had always seemed to me to be a purely human behavior I'd come to accept that the dark and evil side of human nature was deeply embedded in our genes inherited from our ancient primate [Music] 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 away Hugo wasn't any more content with just being at gomi for me he needed to be in the seretti for him [Music] [Music] [Music] restri struggling to try to keep the marriage together well for Grub's sake but we' 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 gomi because there was no way he could stay and work but I couldn't 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 is 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 to carry on the life of the species leis leaky sent me to gomi with the hope that a better understanding of chimpanzee Behavior might provide us with a window on our past our study of 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 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 eight man stock some 2 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 [Music] 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 with my son 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 a 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 3 weeks consecutively in any one [Music] place ladiesent [Applause] [Music] [Music] when I look back over my life it seems I've been extraordinarily lucky although as my mother van always says luck was only part of the story she's always believed that 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 have worked hard all my life I must admit that the Stars seem to have played their part too [Music] [Music] [Applause] la [Music]

Channel: National Geographic

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Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, perpetual planet nat geo, photography, JaneGoodall, An Inside Look, Full Episode, Jane Goodall Full Episode, Director Brett Morgen, chimpanzee research, Jane Goodall Full Episode chimpanzee research, Jane Goodall chimpanzee research, national geographic episodes, full episode, national geographic full episodes, groundbreaking chimpanzee research, research

Id: d3b6zSpy7P4

Length: 90min 10sec (5410 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024