Jane Goodall DBE is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Considered to be the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 60-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees since she first went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960, where she witnessed human-like behaviours amongst chimpanzees, including armed conflict.
It is certainly interesting to note, then, that she has publicly stated on multiple occasions that she does not rule out the possible existence of such a creature.
During a recent interview with GQ Magazine, she also recalled an experience of her own that seemed to further reinforce this possibility in her mind.
Here’s what she said during a recent interview with GQ Magazine.
“I was in Ecuador. We’d flown for two solid hours over unbroken forest in a small plane and we visited four tiny little communities.
“30 to 50 people, no roads, and they communicate with each other by means of like in the old days—it was the town crier, but these are h̳u̳n̳t̳e̳r̳s̳ actually, and they carry the news from one village to another and letters and things like that.
“So I had an interpreter and I said to him, “When you next meet one of these h̳u̳n̳t̳e̳r̳s̳, could you ask if they’ve ever seen a monkey without a tail?” Three of the h̳u̳n̳t̳e̳r̳s̳ came back and said, “Oh yes. We’ve seen monkeys without tails. They walk upright and they’re about six foot tall.”
“Now this was an interpreter from the village. He knew nothing about B̳i̳g̳f̳o̳o̳t̳, nothing at all. Every single country has its version.
“Yeti, Yowie in Australia, Wild Man in C̳h̳i̳n̳a̳. So I don’t know if it’s perhaps a myth that stems from maybe the last of the Neanderthals.
“But then is the last of the Neanderthals still living in these remote forests? I don’t know. But I’m not going to say it doesn’t exist and I’m not going to say people who believe in it are stupid.”
