You mentioned the chimpanzee sanctuary in Congo and then there's the facility at Gombe in Tanzania. What's actually taking place at those two locations now?

At Gombe, the longest study of wild animal behavior in the world is continuing --monitoring the behavior of these individual chimpanzees that are so well-known and so well-studied, and bringing in a few people to do specialized studies of certain aspects of their behavior. A lot of the research is done by Tanzanians from surrounding villages, which is why we've had no poaching, because they're involved in the project. We study baboons there as well. We also have a big program to try to improve the lives of the people living in the villages around this tiny park, an island of forest surrounded by a huge [cleared] area. And that's working; they understand that we care about them as well as the chimpanzees.

That was an effort that you started almost at the beginning. Shortly after you arrived in Gombe four decades ago, your mother, who accompanied you, started a medical program for the local villagers.

That's right. She set up a little clinic. And we've always employed as many of the local people as we could and we've always tried to involve them with the chimps, and it's worked.

Now in Congo-Brazzaville we have a sanctuary built by the Conoco Oil company for about 25 chimps. We were very happy with Conoco because they had far and away the better environmental ethic than any of the other big oil companies who were exploring. And, amazingly, even after Conoco pulled out of Congo [after determining their oil operation was not going to be commercially viable] they left a team behind to complete the sanctuary. They did the right thing.

But that sanctuary, because of various situations around Congo, now has 71 chimps, which is just a nightmare. We can't release them because of the war, which has been simmering on and off for over three years. And it's much too crowded in the facility. We can't put them back in the wild; we've got wild chimps coming around. We can't get cement -- prices go up because the whole infrastructure of the country's been destroyed. We have to build new enclosures -- we must, it's dangerous now. So that's our nightmare program.

Then we have two sanctuaries which are more or less self-supporting: one in Uganda and one in Kenya. And we're starting one in South Africa.

Were you close at all with Dian Fossey when she was alive? I know you both knew Louis Leakey well. [In 1967, Fossey established a research camp in Rwanda, where three years later she made the first friendly gorilla-to-human contact ever recorded. Her subsequent book on the plight of the world's largest primates, "Gorillas in the Mist," was made into a motion picture starring Sigourney Weaver. Fossey was murdered in her cabin at her Rwanda camp on Dec. 26, 1985. The crime has never been solved.]

Louis sent Dian Fossey to Gombe for a little while, to see how it was done. She resented that enormously. She just felt she knew how to do it on her own. Anyway, that was nothing to do with me, that was Louis. I saw her on and off over the years, quite often. We would discuss things. I tried so hard to persuade Dian to involve the local people in her project and she wouldn't.

And an adversarial situation developed between her and the local people in the area where she was studying the mountain gorillas?

Yes, that's why she died, I'm sure. She felt that if the Africans got close to the gorillas the way she was, the gorillas would then be more vulnerable to poachers. And I would say to her, "Our chimps know the difference between my field staff and strangers. I'm sure your gorillas would." Anyway, the poachers at that time were poaching for money. So, if she gave them jobs and they got to know what the gorillas were like, they'd love them, just like the Gombe field staff do with the chimps.

How have your relationships with chimps and other animals, and your understanding of them, affected your relationships with people?

I'm not sure I can answer that. What I know from working with animals is that we should show more respect for the amazing beings with which we share the planet. How working with them has affected my relationships with people ... I'm not sure that it has. How were you meaning?

I was just curious if the long time you've spent studying animals, and your insights into their behavior, have had any effect you can discern on your interactions with your family and friends?

What it may have done is that I do watch people; I like to watch body language and that kind of thing.

Do we share a certain amount of body language with chimps?

Oh, so much! I love to look for chimplike behavior in people just like I enjoy looking for humanlike behavior in chimps.

Your son lives in Tanzania. Is he involved in any of the activities at Gombe?

No, not a bit. He just doesn't like it.

That's just like a kid.

Yes, that's the way they are. But it's interesting. He's got two children now, my grandchildren; and his son, who's 7 -- I think it jumps a generation -- this little boy is passionate about animals. He's a fantastic boy.

Where will you be spending New Year's eve?

I'll be at home, in England. I call it home because I grew up there and my mother still lives there. I couldn't be anywhere except with her.

What's a good resolution for humanity as the new millennium approaches?

The most important thing we have to realize, if we really do want to save the planet for our great-grandchildren -- with a quality of life not too different from what we have today -- is that we've got to stop leaving the decisions up to the decision makers. We've got to become the decision makers. We've got to realize that what we do each day really does impact the world. For example, we can make ethical choices as to what we buy and don't buy. We can change business quicker than any kind of legislation. In a consumer-driven society, businesses aren't going to make things that people don't buy.

We've got to somehow stop thinking that because there are 6 billion people in the world, what we do can't make any difference. As education progresses around the world, which it really is, people are understanding what's dangerous to the environment. They understand what they should and shouldn't do. But we still have people thinking, "It doesn't matter what I do, it's just me." If we can change that thinking around, it will have an enormous impact.

Recent Stories