Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall (http://www.famous-scientists.net/jane-goodall.html)

For my entire life I have been mesmerized by the animal kingdom. I had always dreamed of living in the wild with the animals when I was younger. It was then when I found out that someone actually was able to live that dream and discovered information that made us all look at chimpanzees in a completely different way. She showed us just how similar they were to humans! Yes, this is the amazing Jane Goodall. Jane has so many heroic qualities, for I have never heard of anybody as smart, courageous, and dedicated as her.

When Jane’s father gave young Jane a life-like doll of a chimpanzee that she called Jubilee, he had no idea that this gift would trigger Jane’s passion for chimpanzees. She grew up reading books such as Tarzan, The Story of Dr. Dolittle, and The Jungle Book, and one day dreamed of one day going to Africa herself. When Jane was 23, she finally was able to go to Africa in order to visit one of her high school friends. While she was there, she ran into Dr. Louis Leakey who asked her to assist him in studying the habits of monkeys and even finding fossils. It was during this time that Jane decided to study chimpanzees. Although many other scientists criticized Dr. Leakey for allowing such a young woman to become a lone field researcher in the chimpanzee territory of Gombe, she started doing just that when she was only 26 years old with just a little help from her mother for the first few months.

Jane spent years trailing and observing a chimpanzee family and she was finally accepted by them. By doing this, she proved many scientists wrong as she discovered that the chimps were not herbivorous, but omnivorous and they even used crude tools in order to eat. For example, they would stick a stick in a termite mound and then eat the termites that crawled on the stick! Today, the famous zoologist lives between her childhood home in Bourenmouth, England and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where she continues to write and lecture.

If you’ve ever read The Hero’s Trail by T.A. Barron, then you are familiar with the many types of heroes. To me, Jane Goodall has to be a “hero for all time.” Jane has a tremendous amount of courage to stay out in the African jungle for so long to help us understand the science and similarities we have with chimpanzees. She has plenty of faith as well. She had a dream that she knew she could achieve so she worked hard to reach it and managed to achieve it in just 26 years. If Jane didn’t have faith, the chimpanzee may have still been a mystery to mankind. Jane also has the perseverance of a hero. She just kept to it and never gave up in order to study the lives of chimps. With her great perseverance, she made over 15 discoveries about chimps within 35 years. Jane is also the most adaptable person I have ever heard of. To spend all of those years in the wild and actually be accepted by a group of wild chimpanzees is absolutely astounding. Those chimps trust her, and she trusts them because she has learned how to adapt to their environment and customs. With all of these great achievements in her life, I don’t see how anyone can doubt her heroism. She truly is a “hero for all time.”

Jane Goodall has inspired me all of my life, and will continue to inspire me as well as thousands of others. She has proven that with hard work, dedication, and the love of what you do, you can achieve anything. With her stunning discoveries that has changed our view on the animal kingdom forever, the possibilities now seem endless. When I am older, I hope to be just like Jane and maybe even be someone else’s hero! For now, as I work up to my goal, I will use Jane as an example for me. Jane Goodall is, and always will be, my hero.

For more information, go to: www.janegoodall.org