Chimps act the way they feel unless they are afraid of reprisal if they do so. But that doesn't apply to humans.

They used to ask: "How will this decision that we make today affect our people in the future?" Now we make decisions based on: "How does it affect me, now? How does it affect the next shareholders meeting, three months ahead? How does it affect my next political campaign?"

Chimpanzees can be quite political.

I cannot remember a time when I did not want to go to Africa to study animals.

Some people actually do not like animals - hard for me to understand, but true.

When you meet chimps you meet individual personalities. When a baby chimp looks at you it's just like a human baby. We have a responsibility to them.

As a child, we couldn't afford holidays overseas, so instead I travelled through books. I was inspired by Dr Dolittle and Tarzan.