With the passing of Jane Goodall, The International Science Community Has Lost a Pioneer and Icon. The British Primatologist Made Groundbreaking Discoveries and Introduced the World to the Chimpanzee.
Goodall was born in England in 1934. She Grew Up in Bournemouth, on the English South Coast, where she dreamed of a Life Among Animals. Her Passion for Animals was Ignited by a Gorilla Plush Toy She Received from Her Father and by Books Like Tarzan .
But Her Dream of Working with and Among Animals Initially Didn’t Materialize. She Put Her Ambitions aside after High School because she couldn’t afford to study at University.
She first worked as a secretary and later for a film company, worlds that were far removed from the dreams of her Youth. But that all changed when a friend invited her to come to the jungle in Kenya.
Goodall saved up for the trip and boarded the boat to africa. In 1957, she set foot on the continent where she would spend a large part of her life. In Kenya, She Came Into Contact With The Famous Anthropologist and Paleontologist Louis Lakey. That meeting changed her life.
Chimpanzees Use Tools for Termite Hunting
With Leakey, Goodall Established the Gombe Stream Research Center in What Is Now Known As Tanzania. That Research Institute was the Basic for the Groundbreaking Research that would make goodall world-famous.
In 1960, Goodall Initiated the Longest-Running Study of Chimpanzees Ever From Gombe Stream National Park. One of her most famous discoveries was that the ape species make tools and uses them. Until then, it was assumed that only humans were were capable of this.
Chimpanzees Use Twigs and Branches to Catch and Eat Termites. They stick them in holes where termites are, so that the insects remain attached to the branch or twig, after which the chimpanzees only have to put the tool in their mouths.
Goodall also discovered that chimpanzees Sometimes Eat Meat, Hunt Collectively, and Wage War with Other Ape Species or Rival Groups of Chimpanzees.
Goodall Earned Doctorate Without Ever Having Studied
As an ethologist, Goodall was interested in the Behavior of the Apes. She Oversurned Scientific Conventions by Giving Chimpanzees a Name Instead of A Number. She saw How the Apes Have Different Personalities, Maintain Family Relationships, and Express Emotions.
The Longer She Studied Chimpanzees, The More The Animals Begen To Resemble Humans. “We have discovered that, when push come to shove, there is no sharp line line dividing humans from the rest of the animal kingdom,” she said in a ted talk in 2002.
Goodall spent years in the African Jungle, Although She Interrupted Her Period in Tanzania with a Return to the United Kingdom. There, Between 1962 and 1965, She Earned Her Doctorate in Ethology at Newnham College and Cambridge University. She did so without ever having studied Before.
In 1978, Goodall married the Dutch Filmmaker Hugo by Lawick, who Filmed The Chimpanzees in Tanzania, Among Other Things. These Images Reached Viewers All Over The World via Television Channel National Geographic .
As Climate Activist, She Traveled the World 300 Days A Year
But after decades in the jungle, goodall realized that the world was changing. She saw with her own eyes How the habitat of the chimpanzees in Africa was affected by climate change. The World-Famous Primatologist Decided to use Her Platform To Make People Aware of the Risks of Climate Change.
In 1977, She Founded the Jane Goodall Institute, A Foundation That Focuses on the Conservation of Nature and the Environment, Education about Climate Change, And Research. The Foundation Now Has More Than 25 Branches around the world.
As a Climate Activist, She Traveled the World Three Hundreds a Year to Talk to Politicians and Policymakers. She dedicated her life to providing information and lobbying for combating climate change, Something She -Mintained Until She Breathed HER Last Breath at the Age of 91. She died a speaking tour in California.
‘It is up to us’
Goodall’s Life Changed Drastically Through Her Work as a Climate Activist. Instead of Her Life in the Jungle, Secluded from the Wider World Where She observed Chimpanzees for Days, She Now Traveled Around the World at a Rapid Pace.
“It continues to amaze me that there is some who travels all over the world to do all those things,” she said with a sense of self-reflection in an interview with the new york times in 2014. “And it’s me, no less.
Despite Her Climate Concerns, Goodall was never pessimistic about the future of the earth. She was convinced of the human ability to meet climate challenges.
“Yes, there is hope,” she said in 2002. “It is in our hands. In yours, mine, and our children’s. It is really up to us.”