Jane Goodall

I used to think, well, they're very like people, but nicer.

And then I realized that when opportunity arises, they have this nasty, brutal side to them, just like we do.

You know, when humans fight a war, you always want to know what is the war about?

What is the motivation?

Who is wronging who?

When chimps fight a war, what is it about?

Well, this particular war was the only one we've ever seen, and we're not too sure.

I think we shan't be very sure until it happens again.

Well, now it's happening again.

For one thing, I gave them names instead of numbers.

Terrible thing to do.

For another thing, the first scientific paper I wrote, I talked about chimpanzees as he and she, and I said, this individual who, and the article came back, and it was substituted for he and she, and which was substituted for who.

And then in those days, you couldn't talk about something like adolescence and childhood.

You couldn't talk about motivation.

You couldn't talk about excitement.

There was very, very little you could do in terms of describing chimpanzee behavior in terms that ordinary people would understand.

I think that in most scientific circles today, these things that I've mentioned are accepted.

I think people have come to realize that when we're talking about creatures who share over 98% of their genetic material with us, creatures whom we know to have very, very similar central nervous systems and brains,

You know, it's completely crazy to imagine that they wouldn't have similar feelings, similar ways of tackling problems in life.

Mostly people accept today that that is so.