Hi
Hello.
Hi. Nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
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Well, unfortunately when I first went,
they just ran away from me,
and so it took a long time before they were habituated.
And the first thing I began to notice
is how like us they are.
So in their communication gestures, kissing, embracing,
holding hands, patting one another,
begging for food, swaggering, shaking,
just using tools, making tools, throwing rocks,
in all these ways they behave basically the same as us.
So if you know nothing about chimpanzee behaviour,
and you watch this, you think, "I know what that means."
'Cause we do it too.
The way the chimpanzees they interacted together, they were,
you said, "they showed love."
Was there an interesting mother and child bond as well?
Jane: Mostly they're just ordinary,
but Flo was a particularly good mother.
She was affectionate.
She was protective, but not overprotective.
She loved to play with her infants.
She was, I think the most important of all, supportive.
So she supported her child whatever happened,
even at risk to herself.
Isabelle: And so the way that the mother interacted
with her-- with her kid,
did that help you with when you raised your own child?
Jane: When I had my baby,
one thing I decided chimpanzee mothers have fun with it it.
I'm going to have fun with mine.
So I did a lot of things like they do like lying on my back
and pushing him up on my feet,
doing that kind of things that chimps did.
Isabelle: And so after all these years
has the way you see the world changed
since before you went to Gombe?
Jane: When I went in 1960,
Gombe was part of a forest that stretched right across Africa.
By 1990 it was a tiny island of palm trees
surrounded by completely bare hills.
Since I went to Gombe in 1960,
we have so polluted and harmed this planet
that it's a very different planet.
Isabelle: So is that really where the turning point
was when you first decided to become an activist?
Jane: I don't really like to think of myself as an activist
because that sounds too much like, you know,
the rather aggressive people who become known as tree huggers.
I'm not like that, but I want to do what I can
to help the chimpanzees,
and to help the chimpanzees in Africa,
you need to work with the local people
because it's their country, it's their land.
And they're already cutting down the trees
because they need to grow food to survive.
So helping them to find ways of living without destroying
the environment is very important.
Isabelle: So today I'm going
to your Reasons for Hope presentation.
What are your reasons for hope?
Jane: Every single one of us makes some impact
on the planet every single day,
and we can choose what sort of impact we make,
and so my main reason for hope is that when young people
understand the problems, and we empower them to take action,
they are changing things as we speak.
Second reason for hope is this brain.
So we're beginning to come up with, like, clean, green energy.
So we can stop harming the planet with pollution.
So we're using our human brain also to try and leave
light ecological footprints as we go through each day.
And then next reason for hope is the resilience of nature.
So the places we've destroyed, give them a chance,
and nature can come back.
May not be exactly as before,
but still become beautiful and support life.
And then social media used in the right way.
So for the first time in human history,
we can-- we can send out a message
so that everybody on one day can gather and speak out
so that everybody feels support.
It's not just my group.
It's every where.
And finally, the indomitable human spirit.
People who tackle what seems impossible and won't give up.
Isabelle: Thank you so much
for meeting with me today.
It's nice speaking with you.
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