In 1960 a young englishwoman named Jane Goodall arrived in Africa to begin
what would become the longest field study ever made of an animal group in
the wild. During her three decades in Tanzania , her research team discovered
more about our close relatives than had been known in all of human history.

They observed chimps using tools and communicating with one another,
even to the extent of teaching their young how to use those tools. Such
observations jarred scientific convention. These eyewitness reports forced
science to redefine animal intelligence, since tool making had been
considered a skill developed exclusively by human beings.

Jane Goodall speaks of a chimpanzee that she named David Greybeard.

One day she sat next to him when he stopped by a stream.
ãI saw a red palm nut lying there,ä she remembered, ãand I picked it up and
held it out to him. He didn't want it. There was something wrong with it
perhaps. And he reached out and took it from my hand, and with one smooth
movement he dropped it. But at the same time he very gently held my hand
and gave it soft pressure. And that was a communication which could be
understood without any need of words: He didn't want the nut, but he
understood my gesture in giving it. It was reassurance.ä

Certainly, in the face of a chimpanzee can be seen the look of a thinker ·
and some would argue, the link between them and us.