It is not the first time that the Canary Islands have made an appearance in the life of Jane Goodall. The Archipelago has been one of the key pieces in the life of the British scientist. Her first acquaintance began shortly before she traveled to Africa for the first time, in 1957.
“To understand the mind of apes I was studying Wolfgang Köhler’s experiments in La Casa Amarilla, in Puerto de la Cruz,” he explains.
In that place, the aforementioned German psychologist carried out experiments with chimpanzees that showed that these animals were much more intelligent than previously thought. During his stay in Yellow house, Wolfgang Köhler would conclude that “there are cases in which even the most skeptical of people has to admit that the chimpanzee is capable of acquiring new behaviors.”
Thus, books like The Mentality of Apes, written by Kölher after her time in Tenerife, they became important reference works for the English ethologist, long before she even had her first encounter with chimpanzees. At just 23 years old, a very young Goodall invested all her savings to travel to the farm of a friend of hers in Kenya.
A problem with banana liqueur
“I saved for six months to be able to afford a trip that at that time could only be done by boat,” said the primatologist. That journey, which she made with two other friends, had to stop in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. “Very few people know that I passed through the Islands in 1957 on my trip from the United Kingdom to Africa,” she says.
With the excitement of setting foot in the Canary Islands for the first time, that land about which he had read so much, Godall decided to take advantage of the visit to have a drink on the Islands. “We didn’t have much money and couldn’t afford a drink, but we found a drink that was in our budget,” he explained. It was a banana liqueur, a brandy that is part of traditional island recipes. “I could only have one drink, it was too strong,” he said, laughing.
New links with the Canary Islands
In this latest visit, Goodall has not only reaffirmed her commitment to the recovery of the animal and plant species of the Archipelago, but has also created new links with the Canary Islands.
While the planes that landed in Los Rodeos have reminded him of the fussings of his beloved chimpanzees, he has also toured one of the areas affected by the 2023 fire on Mount La Esperanza.
There Goodall has planted two trees in order to do their bit in the recovery of the burned area. The scientist got her hands dirty with dirt to bury both saplings, which in the future will be part of the new green cover of the Islands. Goodall has thus left her mark on the Islands that have formed, without intending to, part of the great history of the greatest eminence in primatology and ethology in history.
