As a child, I grew up in a family of women (my father was off fighting in World War II), with my mother and her two sisters, my grandmother, and my sister. My bold passion for animals was supported by my mother.

...She supported so many childhood escapades to do with animals. So it was natural that when I read Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes, fell in love with Tarzan, and then was extremely jealous of Tarzan's Jane, my mother was one of the few people to encourage me to follow my ridiculous dream of going to Africa to live with animals. Everyone else laughed at me, but she said, "Jane, if you really want something and work hard and you take advantage of opportunity and you never, ever give up, you will find a way." And when I left school - I didn't go to university because we couldn't afford it - I did her bidding, which was to become a secretary so I could get a job in Africa.

Almost by miracle, my mother's wisdom proved true. Through a series of serendipitous events, I met Louis Leakey, the renowned archaeologist, and was offered an amazing opportunity to go to Tanzania's Gombe National Park on the romantic-sounding shores of Lake Tanganyika. My mission was to try to learn about chimpanzees, but there were problems, most of all that I was a female. Back then, in 1957, a female going to live on her own in the African bush was unthinkable. The British government, which ruled Tanzania at the time, proved obstinate. It denied permission for two to three months, but finally it said, "Well, all right, but she must have a companion." So who volunteered to come? My mother, of course.

-Dame Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist and author