Jane Goodall

So he gave me a job working for him that same day, the day I met him.

I was just writing his letters and speaking to people on the phone and, you know, that kind of thing.

But I had the amazing opportunity of going with him, his wife, and one other young English girl onto the Serengeti, to the now famous Olduvai Gorge, where so many early human fossils have been found.

But at that time, only the remains of prehistoric non-humans had been found.

So instead of being a road leading there as there is today, this was wild, untouched Africa.

No tracks, no trails, just occasionally the odd Maasai walking by.

And all the animals were there.

So that after the hard work of searching for bones, fossilized bones during the day...

In the hot sun, Gillian and I were allowed to go onto the plains and, you know, there were giraffe and zebra and antelopes and one evening a rhino and one evening a young male lion who followed us quite a long way.

And I think that's when Lewis realized I was the person he'd been looking for.

You know, I didn't care about clothes and hairdressers and parties and boyfriends.

He had two major problems to overcome.

One was, how was he going to get the money for this crazy scheme?

I mean, in those days, young people didn't go tramping off living with animals in the bush, especially girls.

And finally, he got some money from a wealthy American businessman, Leighton Wilkie.

And secondly, Tanzania, where the chimps are, was Tanganyika then.

It was under British colonial rule.

It was actually a protectorate.

And so the authorities, the British authorities said...

A young girl on her own in the bush, preposterous, impossible.