One day, after about a year at Gombe, a mature male chimpanzee, David
Greybeard, visited the camp to feed on oil palm nuts. He returned each
day, occasionally accompanied by another male, until the food supply
was exhausted. In the course of one such visit, he took a bunch of bananas
from Jane's tent. After this, Jane asked the cook to leave bananas lying
out; if David Greybeard came, he always took them. One day he took a
banana from Jane's hand and another day he even let Jane groom him.
Once the other chimpanzees realized that David Greybeard trusted Jane,
they seemed to feel less threatened by her presence. From that point
on, the ice was broken and Jane began to observe wild chimpanzees at
close range.
