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My Life Among Wild Chimpanzees

A courageous young British scientist lives among these great apes in Tanganyika and learns hitherto unknown details of their behavior.

These photos and captions were published in the August 1963 National Geographic.

/1963/08/goodall/img/01-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-01.jpg Photograph by Baron Hugo van Lawick Sun's fading glow on Lake Tanganyika silhouettes Jane Goodall, preparing for a lonely nightlong vigil among the chimpanzees.

]]> /1963/08/goodall/img/02-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-02.jpg Photograph by Jane Goodall Swaying dangerously high above ground, Goliath, 150-pound heavyweight of the Gombe Stream Reserve, picks leaves of the Chlorophora excelsa, locally called mvule. On them he finds favorite morsels—hard, sweet galls, the tumorlike growths of plant tissue in which young gallflies live.

]]> /1963/08/goodall/img/03-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-03.jpg Photograph by Baron Hugo van Lawick In a wilderness boudoir Miss Goodall lathers her blond hair with water pure enough to drink. Sedge crowds the rocky bed of Kakombe Stream, a campside bath. Shallow rivulets course nearly all the cool, humid valleys that cut through the reserve. The author reports that chimpanzees appear to ignore lake waters, preferring to drink from streams.

]]> /1963/08/goodall/img/04-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-04.jpg Photograph by Baron Hugo van Lawick In friendly persuasion, David nudges a restraining arm, hoping to get at bananas in a hinged box, the camp's only chimp-proof storage. Wild chimpanzees are normally gentle; this contrasts with the dangerously bad tempers many males develop in captivity.

]]> /1963/08/goodall/img/05-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-05.jpg Photograph by Baron Hugo van Lawick Lower lip stuffed, David Greybeard interrupts his dinner in camp to listen to the call of chimpanzees nearby. He sits in a relaxed position, forearm on knee, elongated hand dangling. Tough, thickened skin on the knuckles attests the four-legged gait preferred by the apes. Divergent big toe, useful for gripping, helps him climb trees. White whiskers are no indicator of age; they often sprout on youngsters.

]]> /1963/08/goodall/img/06-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-06.jpg Photograph by Baron Hugo van Lawick Sick call at camp finds the author's mother, Mrs. Vanne Morris-Goodall, dispensing aspirin.

]]> /1963/08/goodall/img/07-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-07.jpg Photograph by Vanne Morris-Goodall With bored tolerance, David endures grooming by the author. Discarded banana peels evidence his growing sophistication. When first offered the fruit, he devoured skins and all. Now he drops peelings—but often guards them jealously.

]]> /1963/08/goodall/img/08-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-08.jpg Photograph by Baron Hugo van Lawick Disturbing sight—the crouching author—sends a big male scurrying. When startled, chimpanzees clamber from trees and race off across the ground. A more courageous ape, investigating Miss Goodall, struck her.

]]> /1963/08/goodall/img/09-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-09.jpg National Geographic staff artist Walter A. Weber]]> Leaping from trees and brandishing boughs, apes charge downhill in a wild rain dance. Females and their young look on from safe perches while bellowing males, coats glistening in a downpour, stage a frenzied rite to the flash of lightning and the crash of thunder. Stimulated by pelting rain, the animals slap the ground and swat at trees as they career through the grass. One swings round a trunk to break his headlong rush. Soon he will plod up the ridge, turn, and again hurl himself diagonally down the slope. Two apes at center tense for the charge. Spectators scream with excitement. After half an hour or so, the display ends as abruptly as it began.

]]> /1963/08/goodall/img/10-714.jpg /1963/08/goodall/img/chimps-60-10.jpg Photograph by Jane Goodall William munches termites on a bit of vine.

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