In the Shadow of Man Quotes

“At that moment there was no need of any scientific knowledge to understand his communication of reassurance. The soft pressure of his fingers spoke to me not through my intellect but through a more primitive emotional channel: the barrier of untold centuries which has grown up during the separate evolution of man and chimpanzee was, for those few seconds, broken down.

It was a reward far beyond my greatest hopes.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“He was a horrible baboon, that one, an old male who took to hanging around our camp at all hours of the day, lurking in the undergrowth and dashing out whenever opportunity presented to steal a loaf of bread or some other item of food. We called him Shaitani, which is Swahili for devil, and we were immensely relieved when he suddenly disappeared.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“There is something utterly unnerving about a snake in the water.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“Most exciting of all, on several occasions they picked small leafy twigs and prepared them for use by stripping off the leaves. This was the first recorded example of a wild animal not merely using an object as a tool, but actually modifying an object and thus showing the crude beginnings of toolmaking.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“While many details of their social behavior were hidden from me by the foliage, I did get occasional fascinating glimpses. I saw one female, newly arrived in a group, hurry up to a big male and hold her hand toward him. Almost regally he reached out, clasped her hand in his, drew it toward him, and kissed it with his lips. I saw two adult males embrace each other in greeting.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“There was Soko, from Nyanza, whose name caused much amusement among the local Africans, for this is their word for chimpanzee.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“a chimpanzee climbed up a palm trunk and into the branches of the giant tree. It was followed by another and another and another, each climbing in orderly procession. I counted sixteen in all, some large, some much smaller. One was a mother with a tiny infant clinging to her tummy. Excited as I was, I could not help feeling disappointed. Although the chimpanzees remained for two hours in the tree, I saw little except an occasional glimpse of a black arm reaching out from the foliage and pulling bunches of fruit out of sight. And then, one after the other and in complete silence the whole group climbed down the palm tree ladder and vanished into the forest. That was what amazed me most – sixteen chimpanzees in one tree and yet the only sounds I had heard had been the calls announcing their arrival.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“All at once in the valley below I heard the calling of a group of chimpanzees. I had heard chimpanzees in the zoo, of course, but out here in the African forest the sound was thrilling beyond words. First one chimp gave a series of low resonant ‘pant-hoots’ – loud hooting calls connected by audible inhalations of breath. These grew louder and louder, until in the end the chimpanzee was almost screaming. Halfway through his calling another joined in, and then another. I had read of chimpanzees drumming on tree trunks when I went through Dr Nissen’s report. Now I heard the strange echoing sound for myself, reverberating throughout the valley, interspersed with the wild chorus of pant-hoots.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“I only stayed out on the mountain about three-quarters of an hour, but when I returned, almost as black as the slopes on which I had been scrambling, I no longer felt an intruder. That night I pulled my camp bed into the open and slept with the stars above me twinkling down through the rustling fronds of a palm tree.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“Since that day I have often wondered exactly what it was I felt as I stared at the wild country that so soon I should be roaming. Vanne admitted afterward to have been secretly horrified by the steepness of the slopes and the impenetrable appearance of the valley forests. And David Anstey told me several months later that he had guessed I would be packed up and gone within six weeks. I remember feeling neither excitement nor trepidation but only a curious sense of detachment. What had I, the girl standing on the government launch in her jeans, to do with the girl who in a few days would be searching those very mountains for wild chimpanzees? Yet by the time I went to sleep that night the transformation had taken place.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man

“Louis, however, knew exactly what he was doing. Not only did he feel that a university training was unnecessary, but even that in some ways it might have been disadvantageous. He wanted someone with a mind uncluttered and unbiased by theory who would make the study for no other reason than a real desire for knowledge; and, in addition, someone with a sympathetic understanding of animals.”
― Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man