When I began in 1960, individuality wasn't an accepted thing to look for; it was about species-specific behaviour. But animal behaviour is not hard science. There's room for intuition.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The older I get, the more individuality I find in animals and the less I find in humans.
What is unique about humans is their individuality.
I was always interested in animals, but when I was little, animal behavior was still a new science. It was available to become a veterinarian, it was available to study biology, but not specifically animal behavior. In the '60s, Jane Goodall was the founder of this new science.
Humans like to think of themselves as unusual. We've got big brains that make it possible for us to think, and we think that we have free will and that our behavior can't be described by some mechanistic set of theorems or ideas. But even in terms of much of our behavior, we really aren't very different from other animals.
I've always been interested in animal behavior, and I keep reading about it because it's so surprising all the time - so many things are happening around us that we neglect to look at. Part of the passion I have for biology is based on this wonderment.
I'd been interested in animal behaviour as a teenager and had thought of studying it at one point.
I have been interested in phenomena involving complexity, diversity and evolution since I was a young boy.
My opinions about human nature are shared by many psychologists, linguists, and biologists, not to mention philosophers and scholars going back centuries.
The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?
Early experiences convinced me that animals can and do have quite distinct personalities.