‘If we have souls, then so do chimps’

Freddy Gray meets Jane Goodall, the primatologist whose ‘unprofessional’, empathetic approach led to astonishing discoveries about how human-like chimpanzees really are

A 76-year-old woman is making chimpanzee noises at me. ‘OOOHHH HAAAAA, OOOHHH HAAAA,’ she shouts. ‘And then there’s a WRAAAAH! That’s a threat! WRAAAH!’

This woman isn’t mad, though. She is Jane Goodall, the world-renowned primatologist, arguably the greatest behavioural scientist of her time. She is making ape sounds because I’ve asked her to, and because the subject of chimpanzees still inspires in her a child-like excitement. She spent three decades living with our distant relatives in the forests of Tanzania, so she’s justifiably proud of her fluency in chimp-speak. She completes her repertoire with a rendering of the friend-liest chimp greeting — a low-pitched, heavy purr, which sounds a bit like someone snoring. It must trigger some primordial calming instinct within me, because suddenly I feel at ease in front of this famous and distinguished woman.