Synopsis
Born on April 3, 1934, in London,
England, Jane Goodall set out to Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees by sitting
amongst them, bypassing more rigid procedures and uncovering discoveries about
primate behavior that have continued to shape scientific discourse. She is a
highly respected member of the world scientific community and is a staunch
advocate of ecological preservation.
Early Life
Jane Goodall was born on April 3,
1934, in London, England, to Mortimer Herbert Goodall, a businessperson and
motor-racing enthusiast, and the former Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, who wrote
novels under the name Vanne Morris Goodall. Along with her sister, Judy,
Goodall was reared in London and Bournemouth, England. Her fascination with
animal behavior began in early childhood. In her leisure time, she observed
native birds and animals, making extensive notes and sketches, and read widely
in the literature of zoology and ethology. From an early age, she dreamed of
traveling to Africa to observe exotic animals in their natural habitats.
Early Interest in Primates
Goodall attended the Uplands
private school, receiving her school certificate in 1950 and a higher
certificate in 1952. At age 18 she left school and found employment as a
secretary at Oxford University. In her spare time, she worked at a London-based
documentary film company to finance a long-anticipated trip to Africa. At the
invitation of a childhood friend, she visited South Kinangop, Kenya. Through
other friends, she soon met the famed anthropologist Louis Leakey, then curator
of the Coryndon Museum in Nairobi. Leakey hired her as a secretary and invited
her to participate in an anthropological dig at the now famous Olduvai Gorge, a
site rich in fossilized prehistoric remains of early ancestors of humans. In
addition, Goodall was sent to study the vervet monkey, which lives on an island
in Lake Victoria.
Leakey believed that a long-term
study of the behavior of higher primates would yield important evolutionary
information. He had a particular interest in the chimpanzee, the second most
intelligent primate. Few studies of chimpanzees had been successful; either the
size of the safari frightened the chimps, producing unnatural behaviors, or the
observers spent too little time in the field to gain comprehensive knowledge.
Leakey believed that Goodall had the proper temperament to endure long-term
isolation in the wild. At his prompting, she agreed to attempt such a study.
Many experts objected to Leakey's selection of Goodall because she had no
formal scientific education and lacked even a general college degree.
Observing Chimps in Africa
While Leakey searched for
financial support for the proposed Gombe Reserve project, Goodall returned to
England to work on an animal documentary for Granada Television. On July 16,
1960, accompanied by her mother and an African cook, she returned to Africa and
established a camp on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in the Gombe Stream Reserve.
Her first attempts to observe closely a group of chimpanzees failed; she could
get no nearer than 500 yards before the chimps fled. After finding another suitable
group of chimpanzees to follow, she established a nonthreatening pattern of
observation, appearing at the same time every morning on the high ground near a
feeding area along the Kakaombe Stream valley. The chimpanzees soon tolerated
her presence and, within a year, allowed her to move as close as 30 feet to
their feeding area. After two years of seeing her every day, they showed no
fear and often came to her in search of bananas.
Discoveries
Goodall used her newfound
acceptance to establish what she termed the "banana club," a daily
systematic feeding method she used to gain trust and to obtain a more thorough
understanding of everyday chimpanzee behavior. Using this method, she became
closely acquainted with more than half of the reserve's 100 or more
chimpanzees. She imitated their behaviors, spent time in the trees, and ate
their foods. By remaining in almost constant contact with the chimps, she
discovered a number of previously unobserved behaviors. She noted that chimps
have a complex social system, complete with ritualized behaviors and primitive
but discernible communication methods, including a primitive
"language" system containing more than 20 individual sounds. She is
credited with making the first recorded observations of chimpanzees eating meat
and using and making tools. Tool making was previously thought to be an
exclusively human trait, used, until her discovery, to distinguish humans from
animals. She also noted that chimpanzees throw stones as weapons, use touch and
embraces to comfort one another, and develop long-term familial bonds. The male
plays no active role in family life but is part of the group's social
stratification. The chimpanzee "caste" system places the dominant
males at the top. The lower castes often act obsequiously in their presence,
trying to ingratiate themselves to avoid possible harm. The male's rank is
often related to the intensity of his entrance performance at feedings and
other gatherings.
Ethologists had long believed
that chimps were exclusively vegetarian. Goodall witnessed chimps stalking,
killing, and eating large insects, birds, and some bigger animals, including
baby baboons and bushbacks (small antelopes). On one occasion, she recorded
acts of cannibalism. In another instance, she observed chimps inserting blades
of grass or leaves into termite hills to lure worker or soldier termites onto
the blade. Sometimes, in true toolmaker fashion, they modified the grass to
achieve a better fit. Then they used the grass as a long-handled spoon to eat
the termites.
Marriage
In 1962 Baron Hugo van Lawick, a
Dutch wildlife photographer, was sent to Africa by the National Geographic
Society to film Goodall at work. The assignment ran longer than anticipated;
Goodall and van Lawick were married on March 28, 1964. Their European honeymoon
marked one of the rare occasions on which Goodall was absent from Gombe Stream.
Her other trips abroad were necessary to fulfill residency requirements at
Cambridge University, where she received a Ph.D. in ethology in 1965, becoming
only the eighth person in the university's long history who was allowed to
pursue a Ph.D. without first earning a baccalaureate degree. Her doctoral
thesis, "Behavior of the Free-Ranging Chimpanzee," detailed her first
five years of study at the Gombe Reserve.
Van Lawick's film, Miss Goodall
and the Wild Chimpanzees, was first broadcast on American television on
December 22, 1965. The film introduced the shy, determined Goodall to a wide
audience. Goodall, van Lawick (along with their son, Hugo, born in 1967), and
the chimpanzees soon became a staple of American and British public television.
Through these programs, Goodall challenged scientists to redefine the long-held
"differences" between humans and other primates.
Impact on Africa
Goodall's fieldwork led to the
publication of numerous articles and five major books. She was known and
respected first in scientific circles and, through the media, became a minor
celebrity. In the Shadow of Man, her first major text, appeared in 1971. The
book, essentially a field study of chimpanzees, effectively bridged the gap
between scientific treatise and popular entertainment. Her vivid prose brought
the chimps to life, although her tendency to attribute human behaviors and
names to chimpanzees struck some critics being as manipulative. Her writings
reveal an animal world of social drama, comedy, and tragedy where distinct and
varied personalities interact and sometimes clash.
From 1970-1975, Goodall held a
visiting professorship in psychiatry at Stanford University. In 1973 she was
appointed honorary visiting professor of Zoology at the University of Dar es
Salaam in Tanzania, a position she still holds. Her marriage to van Lawick
over, she wed Derek Bryceson, a former member of Parliament, in 1973. After
attending a 1986 conference in Chicago that focused on the ethical treatment of
chimpanzees, she began directing her energies toward educating the public about
the wild chimpanzee's endangered habitat and about the unethical treatment of
chimpanzees that are used for scientific research.
To preserve the wild chimpanzee's
environment, Goodall encourages African nations to develop nature-friendly
tourism programs, a measure that makes wildlife into a profitable resource. She
actively works with business and local governments to promote ecological
responsibility. Her efforts on behalf of captive chimpanzees have taken her
around the world on a number of lecture tours. She outlined her position
strongly in her 1990 book Through a Window: "The more we learn of the true
nature of nonhuman animals, especially those with complex brains and
corresponding complex social behaviour, the more ethical concerns are raised
regarding their use in the service of man--whether this be in entertainment, as
'pets,' for food, in research laboratories or any of the other uses to which we
subject them. This concern is sharpened when the usage in question leads to
intense physical or mental suffering--as is so often true with regard to
vivisection."
Accomplishments
Goodall's stance is that
scientists must try harder to find alternatives to the use of animals in
research. She has openly declared her opposition to militant animal rights
groups who engage in violent or destructive demonstrations. Extremists on both
sides of the issue, she believes, polarize thinking and make constructive
dialogue nearly impossible. While she is reluctantly resigned to the
continuation of animal research, she feels that young scientists must be
educated to treat animals more compassionately. "By and large," she
has written, "students are taught that it is ethically acceptable to
perpetrate, in the name of science, what, from the point of view of animals,
would certainly qualify as torture."
Goodall's efforts to educate
people about the ethical treatment of animals extends to young children as
well. Her 1989 book, The Chimpanzee Family Book, was written specifically for
children, to convey a new, more humane view of wildlife. The book received the
1989 Unicef/Unesco Children's Book-of-the-Year Award, and Goodall used the
prize money to have the text translated into Swahili. It has been distributed
throughout Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi to educate children who live in or
near areas populated by chimpanzees. A French version has also been distributed
in Burundi and Congo.
In recognition of her
achievements, Goodall has received numerous honors and awards, including the
Gold Medal of Conservation from the San Diego Zoological Society in 1974, the
J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize in 1984, the Schweitzer Medal of the
Animal Welfare Institute in 1987, the National Geographic Society Centennial
Award in 1988, and the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences in 1990. More recently,
she was named a Messenger of Peace by the United Nations in 2002 and a Dame of
the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II of England in 2003.
Many of Goodall's endeavors are
conducted under the auspices of the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife
Research, Education, and Conservation, a nonprofit organization located in
Ridgefield, Connecticut.
Recent News
In March 2013, Goodall attracted
a lot of media attention for her book Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the
Plants with Gail Hudson. The book had not yet hit store shelves when Goodall
was accused of plagarism. According to the Washington Post, the famed scientist
borrowed sections from Wikipedia and other sources in her new book without
giving them proper credit.
Not long after the news broke,
the publisher announced the release of the book would be delayed to address the
unattributed sections. Goodall, through a statement from her institute,
apologized for these unintentional mistakes. "This was a long and well
researched book, and I am distressed to discover that some of the excellent and
valuable sources were not properly cited, and I want to express my sincere
apologies."
http://www.biography.com
Leave a respond
Post a Comment