Dame Jane Goodall
, DBE (born Valerie Jane Morris Goodall
on 3 April 1934) is an English UN Messenger of Peace, primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist. She is well-known for her 45-year study of chimpanzee social and family interactions in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, and for founding the Jane Goodall Institute.
|
JANE GOODALL TICKETS
|
Early life and studies
Jane Goodall was born in
London,
England in 1934. As a child she was given a lifelike chimpanzee toy named Jubilee by her father. Goodall was not very interested in animals until her father brought her the stuffed animal. Today, the toy still sits on her dresser in London. After the divorce of her parents when Goodall was 12 years old, she moved with her mother to
Bournemouth, England.
Goodall's interest in animals prompted notable anthropologist
Louis Leakey to hire her as his assistant and secretary. He invited her to accompany him and his wife, Mary Leakey, to dig at
Olduvai Gorge in
eastern Africa. He asked Goodall to study the chimpanzees of
Gombe Stream National Park (then known as 'Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve'). She arrived at Gombe accompanied by her mother in July 1960. Leakey arranged for her to return to the
United Kingdom where she earned a doctorate in
ethology from
Darwin College, the
University of Cambridge in 1964. Along with
Dian Fossey, famous for living with
gorillas, and
Biruté Galdikas, who advanced studies in
orangutans, Goodall was one of three women dubbed "
Leakey's Angels".
Personal life
Goodall has been married twice. On 28 March 1964 she married aristocratic wildlife photographer
Baron Hugo van Lawick at
Chelsea Old Church,
London, becoming Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall. The couple had a son, Hugo Eric Louis, affectionately known as 'Grub', who was born in 1967. They divorced in 1974. In 1975 she married
Derek Bryceson (a member of
Tanzania's parliament and the director of that country's national parks) and they remained married until his death in 1980.
Jane and her younger sister, Judy, both suffer from
prosopagnosia, a neurological condition which impairs the recognition of human faces.
[1]
Professional accomplishments
Goodall is best known for her study of
chimpanzee social and family life. She began studying the
Kasakela chimpanzee community in
Gombe Stream National Park,
Tanzania in 1960.
[2] In 1977, Goodall established the
Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the
Gombe research, and she is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. With nineteen offices around the world, the JGI is widely recognized for innovative, community-centered
conservation and development programs in
Africa and a global youth program,
Roots & Shoots, which currently has over 8,000 groups in over 100 countries. Today, Goodall devotes virtually all of her time to
advocacy on behalf of chimpanzees and the environment, traveling nearly 300 days a year. Goodall is also a board member for the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary outside of Africa, Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Goodall was instrumental in the study of social learning, primate
cognition,
thinking and
culture in wild chimpanzees, their differentiation from the
bonobo, and the inclusion of both chimpanzee species, and the
gorilla, as
Hominids.
One of Goodall's major break-throughs in the field of primatology was the discovery of
tool-making among chimpanzees during her study. Though many animals had been clearly observed using 'tools', previously, only humans were thought to make tools, and tool-making was considered the defining difference between humans and other animals. This discovery convinced several scientists to reconsider their definition of being human.
[3]
Goodall also set herself apart from the traditional conventions of the time by naming the animals in her studies of primates, instead of assigning each a number. Numbering was a nearly universal practice at the time, and thought to be important in the removal of one's self from the potential for emotional attachment to the subject being studied. Among those that Goodall named during her years in Gombe were:
- David Greybeard, a grey-chinned male who first warmed up to Goodall. [4]
- Goliath, a friend of David Greybeard, originally the alpha male named for his bold nature.
- Mike, who through his cunning and improvisation displaced Goliath as the alpha male.
- Humphrey, a big, strong, bullysome male.
- Gigi, a large, sterile female who delighted in being the "aunt" of any young chimps or humans.
- Mr. McGregor, a belligerent older male.
- Flo, a motherly, high-ranking female with a bulbous nose and ragged ears, and her children, Figan, Faben, Fifi, and Flint. [5] [6]
- Frodo, Fifi's second eldest child, an aggressive male who would frequently attack Jane and who once killed and began to eat a human infant. [7]
Environmentalism
Jane Goodall's involvement in tropical forests and conservation has led her to be actively involved in a number of environmental issues, and to found the
Roots & Shoots youth group. She has also endorsed the
Forests Now Declaration, calling for new market based mechanisms to protect tropical forests. She is a patron of the
Optimum Population Trust.
Criticism
Some primatologists have suggested flaws in Goodall's
methodology which may call into question the validity of her observations. Goodall used unconventional practices in her study, for example, naming individuals instead of numbering them
[clarification needed]. At the time numbering was used to prevent emotional attachment and loss of
objectivity. Many standard methods are aimed at helping observers to avoid interference and the use of feeding stations to attract Gombe chimpanzees is, in particular, thought by some to have altered normal
foraging and feeding patterns as well as
social relationships.
[8]
It has been suggested that higher levels of aggression and conflict with other chimpanzee groups in the area were a consequences of the feeding, which could have created the "wars" between chimpanzee social groups described by Goodall. Thus, some regard Goodall's observations as distortions of normal chimpanzee behavior.
[9] Goodall herself (on several occasions) acknowledged that feeding contributed to aggression within and between groups:
"I didn't see aggression to start with. There's no question that chimpanzees become more aggressive as a result of crowding, as a result of competition for food."
(J. Goodall)
"It's very hard to look back with hindsight and say oh well I would have done it differently. If I had gone to Gombe and had access to information about the effect of feeding bananas on wild chimpanzees I wouldn't have done it".
(J. Goodall)
However, Goodall has also said that the effect was limited to alteration of the intensity and not the nature of chimpanzee conflict and further that feeding was necessary for the study to be effective at all.
Some recent studies such as the study by Crickette Sanz in the
Goualougo Triangle (
Congo) or by Prof. Christophe Boesch in the
Tai Forest (
Ivory Coast) have not shown the aggression observed in the Gombe studies.
[10]
"So far, we haven't seen any abnormal levels of aggression. We've never seen chimps killing other chimps. We haven't seen highly elevated territorial disputes. If I had to guess, I wouldn't expect to see it".
(C. Sanz)
"I have not seen this kind of killing in Tai Forest. This violence is not always present".
(C. Boesch)
However, not all primatologists agree that the studies are flawed; for example, Jim Moore provides a critique of Margaret Powers' assertions
[11] and some studies of other chimpanzee groups have shown similar aggression to Gombe even in the absence of feeding.
[12] Despite the early theories of this aggression being somewhat artificial, it is now known that chimpanzees kill and even eat other chimpanzees in the wild.
Honours
Jane Goodall has received many honors for her
environmental and
humanitarian work, as well as others. She was named a
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in a ceremony held in
Buckingham Palace in 2004. In April 2002, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan named Dr. Goodall a
United Nations Messenger of Peace. Her other honors include the
Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the French
Legion of Honor,
Medal of Tanzania,
Japan's prestigious
Kyoto Prize, the
Benjamin Franklin Medal in
Life Science, the
Gandhi-King Award for Nonviolence and the Spanish
Premio Príncipe de Asturias. She is also a member of the advisory board of
BBC Wildlife
magazine.
In 2002, the
Canadian city of
Greater Sudbury,
Ontario dedicated a walking trail, highlighting some of the city's efforts to rehabilitate environmental damage from the local
mining industry, to Goodall.
[13]
On 7 July 2007 Goodall presented at
Live Earth.
In April 2008, Jane was awarded the Montana State University Medal for Global and Visionary Leadership.
Animal welfare activism
Jane Goodall is an
animal welfare activist and is the former president of
Advocates for Animals, an organization based in
Edinburgh,
Scotland, that campaigns against the use of animals in medical research, zoos, farming and sport.
In May 2008, Goodall controversially described
Edinburgh Zoo's new primate enclosure as a "wonderful facility" where monkeys are "are probably better off [than those] living in the wild in an area like
Budongo, where one in six gets caught in a wire snare, and countries like
Congo, where chimpanzees, monkeys and gorillas are shot for food commercially."
[14] This was in conflict with Advocates for Animals' position on captive animals, who stated "She's entitled to her opinion, but our position isn't going to change. We oppose the keeping of animals in captivity for entertainment."
[15] In June 2008 Goodall confirmed that she had resigned the presidency of the organisation which she had held since 1998, citing her busy schedule and explaining, "I just don't have time for them."
[16]
Awards
- 1980:
Order of the Golden Ark, World Wildlife Award for Conservation
- 1984:
J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize
- 1985:
Living Legacy Award from the International Women's League
- Society of the United States; Award for Humane Excellence, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
- 1987:
Ian Biggs' Prize
- 1989:
Encyclopaedia Britannica Award for Excellence on the Dissemination of Learning for the Benefit of Mankind; Anthropologist of the Year Award
- 1990:
The AMES Award, American Anthropologist Association; Whooping Crane Conservation Award, Conoco, Inc.; Gold Medal of the Society of Women Geographers; Inamori Foundation Award; Washoe Award; The Kyoto Prize in Basic Science
- 1991:
The Edinburgh Medal
- 1993:
Rainforest Alliance Champion Award
- 1994:
Chester Zoo Diamond Jubilee Medal
- 1995:
Commander of the Order of the British Empire, presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; The National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal for Distinction in Exploration, Discovery, and Research; Lifetime Achievement Award, In Defense of Animals; The Moody Gardens Environmental Award; Honorary Wardenship of Uganda National Parks
- 1996:
The Zoological Society of London Silver Medal; The Tanzanian Kilimanjaro Medal; The Primate Society of Great Britain Conservation Award; The Caring Institute Award; The Polar Bear Award; William Proctor Prize for Scientific Achievement
- 1997:
John & Alice Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; David S. Ingells, Jr. Award for Excellence; Common Wealth Award for Public Service; The Field Museum's Award of Merit; Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; Royal Geographical Society / Discovery Channel Europe Award for A Lifetime of Discovery
- 1998:
Disney's Animal Kingdom Eco Hero Award; National Science Board Public Service Award; The Orion Society's John Hay Award
- 1999:
International Peace Award; Botanical Research Institute of Texas International Award of Excellence in Conservation, Community of Christ International Peace Award
- 2001:
Graham J. Norton Award for Achievement in Increasing Community Livability; Rungius Award of the National Museum of Wildlife Art, USA; Roger Tory Peterson Memorial Medal, Harvard Museum of Natural History; Master Peace Award; Gandhi/King Award for Non-Violence
- 2002:
The Huxley Memorial Medal, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland; United Nations "Messenger of Peace" Appointment
- 2003:
Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science; Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment Award; Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Achievement; Dame of the British Empire, presented by His Royal Highness Prince Charles; Chicago Academy of Sciences' Honorary Environmental Leader Award
- 2004:
Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest; Will Rogers Spirit Award, the Rotary Club of Will Rogers and Will Rogers Memorial Museums; Life Time Achievement Award, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW); Honorary Degree from Haverford College
- 2005:
Honorary doctorate degree in science from Syracuse University
- 2005:
Presented with Discovery and Imagination Award
- 2006:
Received the 60th Anniversary Medal of the UNESCO and the French Légion d'honneur.
- 2007:
Honorary doctorate degree in commemoration of Linnaeus from Uppsala University
- 2007:
Honorary doctorate degree from University of Liverpool
- 2008:
Honorary doctorate degree from University of Toronto
For a complete list of Dr. Jane Goodall's awards and honors, view her Curriculum Vitae on the Jane Goodall Institute website.
Publications
Source: http://www.janegoodall.org/jane/pub.asp
Books
- 1969
My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees
Washington, DC: National Geographic Society
- 1971
Innocent Killers
(with H. van Lawick). Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Collins.
- 1971
In the Shadow of Man
Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Collins. Published in 48 languages.
- 1986
The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior
Boston: Bellknap Press of the Harvard University Press. Published also in Japanese and Russian. R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Technical, Scientific or Medical book of 1986, to Bellknap Press of Harvard University Press, Boston. The Wildlife Society (USA) Award for "Outstanding Publication in Wildlife Ecology and Management".
- 1990
Through a Window: 30 years observing the Gombe chimpanzees
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Translated into more than 15 languages. 1991 Penguin edition, UK. American Library Association "Best" list among Nine Notable Books (Nonfiction) for 1991.
- 1993
Visions of Caliban
(co-authored with Dale Peterson, Ph.D.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. New York Times "Notable Book" for 1993. Library Journal "Best Sci-Tech Book" for 1993.
- 1999
Brutal Kinship
(with Michael Nichols). New York: Aperture Foundation.
- 1999
Reason For Hope; A Spiritual Journey
(with Phillip Berman). New York: Warner Books, Inc. Translated into Japanese.
- 2000
40 Years At Gombe
New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang.
- 2000
Africa In My Blood
(edited by Dale Peterson). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
- 2001
Beyond Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters, the later years
(edited by Dale Peterson). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company
- 2002
The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do To Care for the Animals We Love
(with Marc Bekoff). San Francisco: Harper San Francisco
- 2005
Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating
New York: Warner Books, Inc. ISBN 0-446-53362-9
Children's books
- 1972
Grub: The Bush Baby
(with H. van Lawick). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- 1988
My Life with the Chimpanzees
New York: Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc. Translated into French, Japanese and Chinese. Parenting's Reading-Magic Award for "Outstanding Book for Children," 1989.
- 1989
The Chimpanzee Family Book
Saxonville, MA: Picture Book Studio; Munich: Neugebauer Press; London: Picture Book Studio. Translated into more than 15 languages, including Japanese and Kiswahili. The UNICEF Award for the best children's book of 1989. Austrian state prize for best children's book of 1990.
- 1989
Jane Goodall's Animal World: Chimps
New York: Macmillan.
- 1989
Animal Family Series: Chimpanzee Family; Lion Family; Elephant Family; Zebra Family; Giraffe Family; Baboon Family; Hyena Family; Wildebeest Family
Toronto: Madison Marketing Ltd.
- 1994
With Love
New York / London: North-South Books. Translated into German, French, Italian, and Japanese.
- 1999
Dr. White
(illustrated by Julie Litty). New York: North-South Books.
- 2000
The Eagle & the Wren
(illustrated by Alexander Reichstein). New York: North-South Books.
- 2001
Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours
New York: Scholastic Press
- 2004
Rickie and Henri: A True Story
(with Alan Marks) Penguin Young Readers Group
Films
- 1963
Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees
National Geographic Society
- 1975
Miss Goodall: The Hyena Story
The World of Animal Behavior Series
- 1984
Among the Wild Chimpanzees
National Geographic Special
- 1988
People of the Forest
with Hugo van Lawick
- 1990
Chimpanzee Alert
in the Nature Watch Series, Central Television
- 1990
Chimps, So Like Us
HBO film nominated for 1990 Academy Award
- 1990
The Life and Legend of Jane Goodall
National Geographic Society.
- 1990
The Gombe Chimpanzees
Bavarian Television
- 1995
Fifi's Boys
for the Natural World series for the
- 1996
Chimpanzee Diary
for BBC2 Animal Zone
- 1997
Animal Minds
for BBC
- 2000
Jane Goodall: Reason For Hope
PBS special produced by KTCA
- 2001
Chimps R Us
PBS special Scientific Frontiers.
- 2002
Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees
(IMAX format), in collaboration with Science North
- 2005
Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe
for Animal Planet
In popular culture
- Goodall is honored by the Walt Disney Company with a plaque on the The Tree of Life at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom theme park, alongside a carving of her beloved David Greybeard, the original chimp who approached Goodall during her first year at Gombe. The story goes that when she was invited to visit the developing Animal Kingdom park as a consultant and saw the Tree of Life, she didn't see a chimp as part of the tree. To rectify this situation, the Imagineers added the carving of David Graybeard and the plaque honoring her at the entrance to the It's Tough to be a Bug! show.
- Cartoonist Gary Larson once drew a cartoon in his The Far Side
newspaper comic that showed two chimpanzees grooming. One finds a human hair on the other and inquires, "Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?" The Jane Goodall Institute thought this to be in bad taste, and had their lawyers draft a letter to Larson and his distribution syndicate, in which they described the cartoon as an "atrocity." They were stymied, however, by Goodall herself, who revealed that she found the cartoon amusing. Since then, all profits from sales of a shirt featuring this cartoon have gone to the JGI.
- Dr. Goodall also appeared and lent her voice as herself in the animated TV series The Wild Thornberrys
.
- The protagonist in Jonathan Safran Foer's second novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
, asks Goodall for a recommendation, to which she responds with a gentle rejection.
- In The Simpsons
episode "Simpsons Safari", a character loosely based on Goodall is a research scientist in charge of a Chimpanzees refuge who is secretly forcing them to mine diamonds for her benefit.
- On her album "Street Angel" Stevie Nicks pays tribute to Jane Goodall with the track "Jane".
- In the movie George of the Jungle, Beatrice Stanhope sits next to Ape the Gorilla and says "I feel just like Jane Goodall", to which Ape replies "Ma'am, I have known Jane Goodall, and you certainly aren't Jane Goodall".
See also
- USC Jane Goodall Research Center
References
- Jane Goodall Biography http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/goodall.html
- Gombe timeline
- Tool Use, Chimpanzee Central, Janegoodall.org
- Gombe National Park, Chimpanzee Cental, Janegoodall.org
- Flo (approx. 1929 - 1972), Chimpanzee Cental, Janegoodall.org
- Fifi (1958 - 2004), Chimpanzee Cental, Janegoodall.org
- Frodo: The Alpha Male
- Power, Margaret (1991). The Egalitarians - Human and Chimpanzee An Anthropological: View of Social Organization. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521400163.
- Frans B. M. de Waal, Nature, Sept 2005, "skeptics attributed chimpanzee 'warfare' to competition over the food that researchers provided"
- Washington University Record, Vol 28 No 28, April 2004
- The Egalitarians (by M. Power, 1991)
- American Journal of Primatology 58:175–180 (2002), Noboyuki Kutsukake and Takahisa Matsusaka.
- [1]
- Mike Wade, Zoos are best hope, says Jane Goodall. ''The Times'', May 20, 2008. Retrieved 18 July 18, 2008.
- Tim Walker, Is Jane Goodall about to lose her post?, ''The Daily Telegraph'', May 23, 2008. Retrieved 18 July 18, 2008.
- Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, Defending captivity. ''Science'', Vol. 320. no. 5881, p. 1269, June 6, 2008. Retrieved 18 July 18, 2008.