a biography of the day-dame jane goodall

(Dame Jane was the grand marshall at this year's tournament of roses parade)


Jane Goodall

Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE (born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934)[1] is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace.[2] Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.[3] She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.
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In 1958, Leakey sent Goodall to London to study primate behavior with Osman Hill and primate anatomy with John Napier.[7] Leakey raised funds, and on 14 July 1960 Goodall went to Gombe Stream National Park becoming the first of "Leakey's Angels".[8] She was accompanied by her mother whose presence was necessary to satisfy the requirements of David Anstey, chief warden, who was concerned for their safety; Tanzania was "Tanganyika" at that time and a British protectorate.[5]
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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.[12] Without collegiate training directing her research, Goodall observed things that strict scientific doctrines may have overlooked.[13] Instead of numbering the chimpanzees she observed, she gave them names such as Fifi and David Greybeard, and observed them to have unique and individual personalities, an unconventional idea at the time.[13] She found that, “it isn’t only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought [and] emotions like joy and sorrow.”[13] She also observed behaviors such as hugs, kisses, pats on the back, and even tickling, what we consider "human" actions.[13] Goodall insists that these gestures are evidence of "the close, supportive, affectionate bonds that develop between family members and other individuals within a community, which can persist throughout a life span of more than 50 years."[13] These findings suggest similarities between humans and chimpanzees exist in more than genes alone, but can be seen in emotion, intelligence, and family and social relationships.

Goodall’s research at Gombe Stream is best known to the scientific community for challenging two long-standing beliefs of the day: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians.[13] While observing one chimpanzee feeding at a termite mound, she watched him repeatedly place stalks of grass into termite holes, then remove them from the hole covered with clinging termites, effectively “fishing” for termites.[14] The chimps would also take twigs from trees and strip off the leaves to make the twig more effective, a form of object modification which is the rudimentary beginnings of toolmaking.[14] Humans had long distinguished ourselves from the rest of the animal kingdom as "Man the Toolmaker". In response to Goodall's revolutionary findings, Louis Leakey wrote, "We must now redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human!

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall