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Chimps dont have weekends, so I didnt either, she says of her schedule in Tanzania.
This week,primatologist Jane Goodallreflects on her third year of chimpanzee research in the Tanzania forests.
And as she neared age 30, Goodall started work on a Ph.D. in ethology at Cambridge University.
Shes spent the past year here with her sister, niece, and grand-nephews.
What were you interested in doing next?
Did you have a plan?
No, my plan was to carry on because there was so much left to learn.
There was no way I wanted to stop.
I had just brushed the edge.
Chimpanzees can live 60 years, and each one is an individual.
To really get a grip on their behavior, it takes years and years.
Were actually now in our 61st year of studying the same chimps at Gombe.
Were about to start the fifth generation.
Living at a field site in the forest seems like an interesting set up.
What was a typical day like for you?
Did you have any free time on the weekends?
Every day, I set the alarm.
I got up when it was still dark.
Sometimes I put some peanuts into my pocket, sometimes I brought nothing.
And I came down from the mountains just about as it was getting dark.
Then I had some supper, cooked by the cook.
Simple, very simple, [we had] very little money back then.
Chimps dont have weekends, so I didnt either.
So that was my day, dawn to dusk.
Whenyou and Hugostarted dating, you were at a field site.
It wasnt a typical start to a relationship.
Was there anything young people today could learn from your relationship?
Well, we were thrown together.
We were out there, both loving animals, both loving being in nature.
So it was pretty inevitable that we should decide, well, lets do it together.
And for a long time, it worked really well.
We were a good team, with me doing the observation, Hugo recording it.
Hugo editing the films.
Hugo satisfying [National] Geographic with his pictorial record and me satisfying them with writing.
I dont think I have advice for young people.
I was going to say you should share interests.
We shared interests up to a certain point.
And then things went wrong because we didnt share everything.
But there are some really successful marriages where the husband and wife have very different career interests.
So I dont think its set for all.
It just depends on their personalities.
Youve become a global icon in the conservation world.
Was there a moment when you realized youd become a throw in of celebrity?
How did your life change?
When I began, it was just me.
By 1986, there were six other field sites.
Thats when I realized how fast chimpanzee numbers were dropping.
People would come up and say, Oh, youre Jane Goodall.
Can I have a signature?
I wanted to hide away.
I was very shy.
And I used to go through airports with my hair loose [to hide my face].
I just didnt like it at all.
I took to carrying little brochures around and started theJane Goodall Institute.
Ive had to come to terms with it.
Its like there are two Janes.
Theres this one talking to you in the house where I grew up, and then theres the icon.
Theyre separate and yet, theyre the same.
Tell me about the house youre in now.
[My uncle] came every other weekend from being a surgeon in London.
During the war, we had to offer rooms in the house to anybody needing a home.
If you had a spare room, thats what you were required to do for the war effort.
So they gave us two women.
We didnt like either of them very much, but there they were in the house.
And thats how I was throughout the war from age 5 to 10.
And now, my sister lives here with her family: her daughter and her two grown grandsons.
So weve been together during the pandemic.
Is there anything youd tell your 28-year-old self to do differently?
I would offer my 28-year-old self to do just what she did.
So she made some mistakes, but she learned from them.
Nobody else was studying chimps at that time.
And looking back on it, I think that I made the right decisions.
What do you think your 28-year-old self would think of Jane today?
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
