THE call of an excited chimpanzee rang out in Bournemouth’s Central Gardens yesterday.

It came, not from an ape, but from the town’s world-renowned environmental campaigner Dr Jane Goodall, who had just had a tree planted in her honour.

Dr Goodall, whose ground-breaking work with chimpanzees changed mankind’s understanding of them, mimicked the cry as school pupils and VIPs gathered to mark 50 years of her achievements.

“It’s the first tree I’ve planted in my home town,” she told the guests.

“It’s very rare here that anybody except the Daily Echo even knows that I exist, although in America and other places it’s very different.”

Afterwards, she admitted to the Echo that her late mother Vanne had been sad not to see Jane’s achievements celebrated in Bournemouth.

“I keep thinking how Mum would have liked it and wishing she was around,” she said.

“She was always disappointed Bournemouth didn’t seem to care.”

Dr Goodall grew up in Bournemouth with her sister Judy, who was also at the event. She recalled walking through the gardens as a child with her first dog jumping across the stream. When she is not travelling the world as an environmental campaigner and UN Messenger of Peace, she still stays at the West Cliff home which belonged to her family.

Bournemouth’s mayor, Cllr Barry Goldbart, recapped on Dr Goodall’s discoveries about chimpanzees, which included the revelation that they could fashion tools, that they were not vegetarians and that they shared a lot of personality traits with humans.

“We are all very proud today to be witnessing the planting of this tree, that symbolises regenerative life on Earth, to honour our citizen Dame Jane Goodall,” he said.

Pupils from Bournemouth School for Girls and Ringwood School, which both have offshoots of the Jane Goodall Institute’s educational programme Roots & Shoots, were at the event. Dr Goodall encouraged them to pick up handfuls of soil to help plant the oak.

She said: “I hope you’ll come and look at this tree from time to time and if you ever hear any rumour that they want to do away with these gardens and build on them, please come and hold on to this tree and say ‘Over my dead body’.

“It’s a Roots & Shoots tree here in the middle of Bournemouth where I grew up.”