Jane Goodall, one of the most amazing scientists in the field of primatology, has made incredible breakthroughs in the science of animals. As a matter of fact, she was the first person to realize that chimpanzees have very similar social behaviors to humans, and that they are very intelligent. She is best known for staying in Tanzania for long periods of time to study chimpanzees. The organization she began in 1960, called the Gombe chimp observation, is the world’s longest running continuous wildlife research project. Not only that, through the Jane Goodall Institute, she became a staunch supporter of human rights and a conservationist.
Valerie Jane Goodall was born on April 23, 1934, in London, England. Even at a young age, she loved animals. When she was one, her father gave her a stuffed monkey called Jubilee, and she treasured it, even when she grew into an adult. When she was four, Jane, who lived on a farm, went to the henhouse to watch how the hens laid eggs. Not realizing that she had been there for longer than she thought, she stayed there for hours. Her frantic parents reported her missing, but eventually found her in the henhouse. Although she moved several times because of her father’s racing career, she never ceased to love animals. Jane became a fluent in French after her parents moved to France, and she experienced having her father fight in World War II when she was young.
During that time, Jane’s passion for animals grew: she had many pets, including tortoises, dogs, racing snails, caterpillars, a lizard, guinea pigs, a hamster and a canary.
Her passion to visit Africa emerged as she read the Doctor Doolittle series. Her other favorite books, Tarzan and The Jungle Book, all involved animals. She hated school, especially as a teenager. When she was twelve, she formed the Alligator Club, a nature club with four members including herself, her sister Judy, and two of their friends. She even produced a club magazine. After she graduated from private school, she became a typist and also worked in the film industry where she chose the music for documentaries.
In 1957, Jane’s life changed dramatically when a family friend invited her to visit her in Africa. There, Jane found everything she had ever dreamed of: wildlife and animals. Encouraged by the friend, Jane went to work in Nairobi, Kenya, and contacted the famous paleontologist Louis Leakey.
Leakey believed that the way to open up a path for studying other animals was to study primates, specifically, chimpanzees. He got to know Jane and saw that she was the right person for a long-term study. He encouraged her to return home to England and study primate anatomy and behavior, while he raised money for her trip to Tanzania, where she would be up-close with the chimpanzees.
In the summer of 1960, Jane began setting up her camp in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to study a group of chimpanzees. For the first two years, the chimpanzees were wary of her, but after that, she became accepted in their group. To let them accept her, she needed to imitate them and their methods, and write down what she observed in her notebook. She named the first chimp to accept her , David Graybeard. Up until then, it was unusual to name animals being used in scientific studies.
Jane began noting new things and making discoveries people had never made before about chimpanzees. She discovered that instead of using their mouths to eat as everyone had previously thought, they actually used tools to eat their food, similar to the way humans ate foods. Not only that, but through her thorough observation, she learned that chimpanzees hunt down and kill smaller animals for food. For example, she saw David Graybeard and several other chimpanzees feeding on a wild pig, as well as hunting down a small monkey for food. In addition, Jane began to notice increasingly human behaviour in the monkeys. As Leakey said after finding out about her discoveries, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man.’ Or accept chimpanzees as humans” (“Jane Goodall Biography”).
In 1971, Jane published her first, book, In the Shadow of Man. It was widely criticized because she named the chimpanzees in her book; however, many people thought it enjoyable to read because it was an exciting mix between storytelling and science. Later in the 1970’s and the next decade, Jane began spending less time in the Gombe Research Center, and she was growing more and more concerned over the changes in Africa. Miners were cutting up the ground to get minerals, and loggers were deforesting forests for wood. All this was having effects on the chimpanzees.
As a result, Jane became an environmental advocate. When appeareing on television and through her writing, she spread the word that human interference in the natural world was unnecessarily ruining the chimpanzees’ habitats. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute, an organization that believes in conserving the land around chimpanzee habitats. It is still active today.
In 2002, Jane was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and in 2004, Prince Charles named her a dame of the British Empire. Today, Jane is 82, as she celebrated her birthday just weeks ago, on April 3. Despite her age, this courageous and strong woman is still active in campaigning for her beloved chimpanzees. As she stated, “to achieve global peace we must not only stop fighting each other, but also stop destroying the natural world” (“Jane Goodall Biography”).
Sources:
Bagley, Mary. "Jane Goodall Biography." Live Science. TechMedia Network, 29 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.
"Jane Goodall." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 14 Dec. 2015. 16 April 2016. Web.
