Jane Goodall: Lessons on Science and Humanity

One person can change the world. Dr. Jane Goodall is living proof of that, and she now dedicates her life to conveying this message. A world-renowned ethologist and conservationist, Dr. Goodall has forever changed our understanding of animals through her revolutionary studies of chimpanzees. This summer, sixty-five years after she began her studies in Tanzania, Africa, an immersive project called Dr. Jane’s Dream is opening there in her honour.

TANZANIA

Born in London in 1934, Dr. Goodall loved animals from a young age. At twenty-six, she arrived at the Gombe forest reserve in Tanzania to begin her work for Kenyan anthropologist Louis Leakey. There, she spent the next thirty years studying chimpanzees in their natural environment. She observed them making and using tools, hunting and eating meat, and engaging in wars — activities that were until then associated only with humans.

RELATIONSHIPS

Dr. Goodall’s discoveries changed the world in many ways. They revolutionised the way we understand primates and other animals; transformed perceptions of the relationship between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom; raised awareness of the need to protect chimpanzees from extinction; and influenced conservation and community work globally. And Dr. Goodall continues to change the world to this day.

BOOK OF HOPE

Now aged ninety-one, Dr. Goodall is the founder of the global conservation organisation the Jane Goodall Institute and the environmental and humanitarian programme Roots & Shoots, a UN Messenger of Peace, and the author of many books for adults and children, including her most recent bestseller, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for TryingTimes. She travels about three hundred days each year, inspiring people around the world to do what they can to save our planet.

WORLD CHIMP DAY

A reflection of her incredible work, Dr. Jane’s Dream is to open around World Chimpanzee Day, on 14 July, at the Arusha Cultural Heritage Center, between Mount Kilimanjaro and Serengeti National Park. African artisans worked on the project with former Walt Disney imagineers. On the occasion of World Chimpanzee Day, Dr. Goodall recalled her beginnings and reflected on the work done over the years.

Jane Goodall (English accent): It brings vivid memories of that day, the 14th of July 1960, when I first stepped onto the sandy beach of Gombe National Park to start my study of wild chimpanzees. Those first months were so frustrating because the chimps vanished into the forest whenever they saw me and so early observations were from a distance, through my binoculars. But after four months the chimps began to accept me and allowed me to observe and record their behaviour. I got to know them better and better. They became almost like family members. The National Geographic Society sent Hugo van Lawick to film the chimps and we built up a small research station. And now the Gombe Research is one of the two longest studies of primates in the world. Over the years, the Gombe studies revealed how much chimpanzee behaviour is similar to our own. They kiss and embrace in greeting; they have a long childhood during which the young one learns through experience and imitation; they use and make tools, use rocks and stoutsticks as weapons. Sadly, they have a dark and brutal side, and they may kill each other and even wage primitive warfare, the males fighting over territory. But the chimps also show compassion and true altruism, just like us.

SHARED DNA

Humans and chimpanzees share more than 98 percent of their DNA, and there are marked similarities in the composition of their blood and immune systems. This makes chimpanzees, along with bonobos, our closest living relatives. However, these great apes still endureharsh conditions in many places.

Jane Goodall: Unfortunately, the situation for chimpanzees across their range in Africa is worse today than it was when I began, mainly because of human population growth, habitat loss, hunting and the illegal trafficking of infant chimpanzees as pets or for entertainment, mostly to the Middle East and Asia. And this typically means that their mothers were killed. When it was realised that chimpanzee numbers were decreasing across Africa, they were classified as ‘endangered’, or some of them ‘critically endangered’, on the IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature] Red List of Threatened and Endangered Species. Unfortunately, this doesn’t give them sufficient protection because of poor enforcement of the law in most African countries and the demand for infant chimps for pets or entertainment.

SANCTUARIES

The Jane Goodall Institute runs two sanctuaries for orphan chimpanzees: the largest, Chimpunga, in the Republic of Congo, cares for almost two hundred chimps; and the smaller, Chimp Eden, in South Africa, provides a safe haven for thirty individuals. And there are plans to open at least two more. Dr. Goodall emphasises the importance of the work these institutions do.

Jane Goodall: First, I can truly say that if it wasn’t for the Jane Goodall Institute and other NGOs and research groups working on studying and conserving chimpanzees across Africa and raising awareness about their plight, the situation for these apes would be much, much worse. These sanctuaries, along with research sites, provide jobs for local people and ecotourism brings foreign exchange into the countries. And this means that the different countries benefit from protecting their chimpanzees and the local people benefit, too.

MEDICAL RESEARCH

One of the most significant achievements of the Jane Goodall Institute has been helping to end the use of chimpanzees in medical research.

Jane Goodall: In the 1960s, the conditions almost everywhere were absolutely appalling. Chimps from the wild were used in medical research, imprisoned often in five foot by five foot [1.5 metres] cages, mostly by themselves. There were more than five such facilities in America and at least three in other countries. And now there are no chimpanzees in medical research. And there are a number of sanctuaries for ex-lab chimps as well as ex-pets in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and Japan. These sanctuaries are run by people who understand and love the chimpanzees they care for, many of whom were traumatised by what they went through when they were young.

JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE

World Chimpanzee Day was established in 2018 by a group of NGOs, including the Jane Goodall Institute. The date, 14 July, was chosen to commemorate the day Dr. Jane Goodall first set foot in what is now Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees. For her, the day is not only a celebration of these intelligent and compassionate animals, but also a time to remember those she holds dear.

Jane Goodall: I want to pay tribute to some of the chimpanzees who first allowed me into their lives and taught me so much, starting with David, Greybeard and Goliath, then old Flo with her family that included Figan, one of the smartest chimps I’ve ever known. And then there was Melissa, mother of Gomby’s first twins, and her daughter Gremlin, who also gave birth to twins and is still with us today. I remember her so well when she was a mischievous youngster and now she’s a wise old matriarch, over forty-five years old and undisputed dominant female of the Kasekela community.  

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