Early Life
Dame Jane Goodall is a trailblazing primatologist (expert on primates) and ethologist (expert in animal behaviour). She is famous for her work on chimpanzees and on conservation. Born in London in 1934, her love of wild animals was inspired by a stuffed chimpanzee toy she was given as a child (which she still has!). She knew at the age of 10 that she wanted to work with wild animals in Africa. After working as a waitress to raise money for the trip, she
arrived at a friend’s farm in Kenya in 1957.
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In the 1950s it was very difficult for a woman to get a job as a field researcher. She managed to get a job as a secretary with Louis Leakey, a well-known archaeologist. Leakey believed that studying primates might shed light on the lives of the ancestors of the human species. He supported Goodall’s training in primate behaviour. After this, she was able to start working with chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Nigeria in 1960. Very unusually, Goodall was able to pursue PhD studies on this work without having an undergraduate degree. She received her doctorate in 1965.
Career and Discoveries
Goodall spent a great deal of time in Gombe observing chimpanzee behaviour. She was the first to suggest that they had emotions and personalities that were similar in some ways to humans, having seen them hug, kiss and give reassurance to each other.
She was criticised as “non-scientific” for giving the chimpanzees names instead of numbers but close association with them meant that she was the first scientist to see them use tools. A chimpanzee that she had named David Greybeard used a stalk of grass to get termites from a termite mound. Other chimps used twigs in the same way after stripping leaves off them to make them better tools. Although chimpanzees were thought to be vegetarian, she also observed them working together to hunt and eat other animals. Her
observations were the first scientific evidence that primates had social relationships and behaviour like those of humans. This was controversial when humans were seen as completely different from other animals.
In 1977, Goodall set up the Jane Goodall Institute to research chimpanzees and campaign for the protection of their habitats. Much of the work of the Institute now focuses on supporting small communities in Africa to protect their local wildlife habitats and supporting young people in Africa. This work includes scholarships to allow girls to go to school. Despite being in her 80s, Goodall is still very active in conservation efforts. Before this year she was travelling 300 days every year to give talks in conservation. Her amazing work has been recognised with many awards -the Medal of Tanzania, French Legion d’Honeur and UN Messenger of Peace. Finally, in 2004 she was made a Dame. A truly inspiring scientist!