Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall lived in Africa for more than 30 years. She studied chimpanzees, which led to new discoveries of this species.

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Jane Goodall was born in London, England, on April 3,1934. She always loved living creatures. Mrs. Goodall, Jane’s mother bought her a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee and it soon became her favorite toy that she always had to have. At five years old Jane and her family moved. At her new house she rode horses and watched all kinds of insects creep and crawl. One time Jane hid in a hen house because she wanted to see how chickens laid eggs. She was in there for five hours. Her whole family was very worried except her mother. Her mother saw how much she loved animals and was happy for Jane. As Jane reached the age of seven she realized that she wanted to go to Africa. All through Jane’s childhood she knew she had a love for animals.

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As the years passed, Jane finished high school and went back to London. Jane had her first job as a secretary in London. Jane returned home one evening and checked the mail. In the mail there was a letter waiting for her from Africa. Surprisingly, it was from her friend who wanted her to come visit. Jane was overjoyed when she read this. In a hurry, the next morning she went to work and declared that she quit. Instead, she worked as a waitress and saved money. Eventually, she had saved enough and bought a ticket to Africa. At this time she was 23 years old. Jane stayed in Kenya for many weeks. She located a job in Nairobi, which is the capital of Kenya. Catching up with her friend, she mentioned how much she loved animals. Her friend then introduced her to Dr. Leakey, who studied the bones of dead animals. She worked with him and his wife for months. Each day she dug for bones of animals. Since trying to find animal bones, her love for animals became even stronger every day. Jane wanted to work with live animals, and be with them her whole life. Maybe being such as Dr. Dolittle, who could speak to animals. Dr. Leaky understood how much Jane loved animals, and he offered her a job of working with chimpanzees that had never been studied before. Of course Jane accepted; she had been dreaming about this type of job her whole life.

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Before performing her new job, Jane went back to England. The Kenyan government told her that they would allow her to study at the Gombe Stream Game Reserve. The catch was though, she couldn't go alone. A solution to this was asking her mother to travel along with her. Both Jane and her mother arrived in 1960, taking a two-hour boat trip there. As they adjusted to the camp site, they met native people nearby. Jane and her mother ate baked beans, corned beef, and canned foods. They had no refrigerator and slept in tents with cots. Of course, Jane had to go explore the area nearby. The next day she explored the forest, except this time, she had two local guides lead her. She learned that chimpanzees would come back to each spot every day. She also saw the places where the chimpanzees ate. With patience Jane, explored for chimpanzees each day, getting up earlier than six o'clock. First, eating a banana and drinking coffee. Soon after, climbing slopes nearby. Jane tried and tried to look for the chimps, having faith and hope too. As months passed, she only occasionally saw them. Although, she did learn about the forest more, through her explorations. She knew her way around the forest well, and discovered new animals. Late those same nights, she'd return and still study the chimps, using her notes.

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Climbing a mountain behind her campsite, she found a few chimps. Thinking they'd run away, she stayed put. Surprisingly they stayed for a few minutes. Eventually, they slowly walked away. The chimpanzees were becoming more familiar with Jane. Jane also experienced two baby chimps riding on their mothers' backs. Unfortunately, Jane and her mother became ill with malaria. They did indeed though become well within 10 days. Jane's mother even opened a clinic to help other people with illness. Jane decided to even camp near them, to get a better perspective on them. She realized each chimp had its "mind of its own." Basically being like humans. Some chimps didn’t seem to mind her, while others did. Most of them were curious, and wanted to know what she was and why she was around. Sometimes the chimpanzees showed anger to her too, making her studies dangerous. As time passed, she began bonding with the chimps. For example, one time she held her hand out with a nut on it, trying to give it to the chimp. The chimp, who she decided to name David, reached out and held her hand. Jane learned that chimps eat other animals sometimes, and not just only fruits and vegetables. Just like humans, they made tools for themselves. Jane was the first to discover this.

Later on in Jane's life, she married a man named Hugo Van Lawick in 1964. Hugo and Jane fed chimps together at the camp site, soon having too many. That’s when Jane hired Edna Koning to become her assistant. Jane continued to hire assistances, ending up with more than 10 at the camp site. In 1966, Jane had her first son. As he grew older he was sent away to boarding school, located in England. Jane was sorrowful during this time for two reasons. First, her son had gone away, and her favorite chimp had died. Divorcing her husband in 1974, she re married to Derek Bryceson. Later, more assistants came to the camp to help Jane. She gave them the privilege to work alone and taught them what information to record. Derek soon died of cancer, leaving Jane in sorrow once again. For this reason Jane visited her family in England, but of course, returned to Gombe. Jane didn't think she was doing enough to help chimps, so she decided to start helping chimps in other lands.

1977 came soon, and Jane founded the Jane Goodall Institute in Tucson, Arizona. This institute was created to help chimps around the world and not just in Gombe. Jane spoke once a month at this institute. Thinking that wasn't enough, she helped raise money to buy land to protect chimpanzees. Jane visited labs of research, making sure chimps were treated right and not abused. Jane always spoke out for chimps, learning much about them.

Jane learned more about chimps than any other researcher. She had faith that people would look at chimps in another view, a view of love and hope to help these innocent creatures.