National Geographic: Among the Wild Chimpanzees Page #5

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in that four years

in fact, they were

responsible for the deaths

of ten newborn babies."

Jane had always described Passion

as "a somewhat unnatural mother"

cold and indifferent,

indeed often callous to her youngsters

Yet Jane could not possibly

have predicted that Passion

would become a killer

attacking with aggression so violent

that she paid no attention to human

observers even when

they tried to intervene

"Why did they do it?

I really have no idea

I suspect that it was an

aberrant behavior shown first

by the mother imitated

by the daughter

It was, perhaps, the hardest thing to

understand and to accept

that's ever happened at Gombe

And the descriptions of the attacks

on these mothers are some of

the most moving and horrifying

descriptions that have taken place

in all the 22 years

For instance, when passion,

together with Pom

two strong females, attacked

Melissa with her three-week-old baby

Melissa's daughter Gremlin

much younger than Pom,

ran over to the two field

assistants who were watching

this horrifying struggle

stood upright,

looked into their eyes

looked back at the scene, and

really seemed to be begging for help

But Passion and Pom

were strong

stronger than Melissa,

and they managed to seize the baby

leaving Melissa terribly

badly wounded

The moment they had the baby

and had killed it

when Melissa went up to watch

as they ate it

Passion reached out

embraced and kissed her as though

I have no quarrel with you."

I wanted your baby

Now I'm content

And as I say we just do not

understand this behavior

Hopefully now

the behavior is finished

Passion is dead

Pom has shown no signs of

doing this and, indeed

on her own isn't capable

of attacking another female

and stealing her baby."

For now the warfare is over

the cannibalism has ceased

Gombe is quiet again but for the

eternal sounds of the African night

Then on a summer evening in 1982

a joyous chorus of human

voices pervades the dark

an anniversary party celebrating

To share this night, some have come

by boat

others have walked for miles

With traditional feasting

and speeches

they join together to toast the

future and celebrate the past

"Well, after 22 years I have many

many fond memories of Gombe

Perhaps the one that I like to

think back on most

was after having struggled

crawled through the undergrowth

climbed up to the Peak and down again

and searched, and being rewarded

yes by seeing chimps, but chimps

that ran away every time I went

up to them -

to have a chimpanzee just sit there

and watch me and know that I was

there and not mind

That was a very, very wonderful moment

It was a tremendous feeling of

accomplishment

and exhilaration and pride in the

fact that I'd been accepted

And then a rather different kind of

memory was the first time

that a wild chimpanzee mother

came up to me

and allowed her infant to reach

out with

that wondering expression in his eyes

to touch me

And that, of course, was Flo with

her infant Flint

And that's another moment I'll

never forget."

And though it often seems a lifetime ago

she remembers them all three

generations of chimps

who allowed her the privilege of

entering their private world

Wild animals roaming free

who permitted a human to live among

them as a friend

Today, the direction of the study

lies uncharted

ahead to be written by

the chimps themselves

It is a future Jane Goodall embraces

with anticipation and a personal dream

"I hope to stay at Gombe for as long

as I can struggle around the mountains

and even after that I would hope

that I can train somebody to follow

in my footsteps

so that when I'm an old and

doddering lady

I can still hear about Melissa's

grandchildren

and Fifi's successors and be happy

in my old age."

When Louis Leakey told Jane her

study might last ten years

it sounded like a lifetime

and privately she thought

"three years at mos."

Already into her third decade at Gombe

the pioneer who dared to be accepted

by wild animals

and won has no intention of

leaving now

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