Jane Goodall was born on April 3, 1934 in Hamstead, London to businessman Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall and novelist Margaret Myfanwe Joseph.
Goodall is a primatologist and anthropologist and the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees. Her interest in primates was sparked as a child, when her father presented her with a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee. Young Jane was immediately taken with the toy and decided to learn more about these fascinating animals.
At the age of 26, she left for Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to begin a study that would span 60 years, on the social and family interactions of chimpanzees in the wild.
In 1960, when Goodall began her journey, nothing was known of the life patterns and behaviour of wild chimps. They were regarded as animals with no higher-order feelings or intelligence. However, unlike the other researchers with her, Goodall gave individual names to each animal and soon discovered that they had unique and individual personalities.
Her ideas were unconventional at that time but Goodall soon began gathering evidence that there were many similarities between human and chimp behaviour. Her research also challenged the belief that only humans were capable of making and using tools. She found that chimps used stalks of grass or twigs to remove termites from holes and eat them.
Her ground-breaking research challenged conventional scientific theories held at the time and led to awareness and measures undertaken to protect the wild chimpanzee populations in Africa. Today Goodall raises awareness to protect chimpanzees and their habitat through her non-profit organization, ‘Jane Goodall Institute’ (JGI) and JGI’s global youth program, ‘Roots and Shoots’. In April 2002, she was named a UN Messenger of Peace. She is one of the most highly respected members of the world scientific community.
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