When Jane Goodall died last week aged 91, Mother Nature lost one of her most inspiring and dedicated protectors.
She led a truly extraordinary life, beginning in a quiet part of England and then embarking on a scientific adventure, aged 26, in what is now Tanzania to study the behaviour of chimpanzees.
She challenged the then scientific paradigm that greatly underestimated the intelligence and complexity of chimpanzee behaviour. Proving that chimps could not only use tools, but make them, she also found that their social behaviour was similar to humans, with tight social bonds, hierarchies and complex social structures. She also demonstrated that chimps could experience emotions ranging from jealousy to joy and grief.
Noting that we humans share 98.7 per cent of our DNA with apes, she concluded that both spec
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