Who Is Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is, without a doubt,  one of the most influential women in history, and one of the greatest activists for animal conservation and protection. However, her story is less known than the great work she has done.

Jane Goodall, a woman in the jungle

Jane was born far away from Africa, in the bustling city of London. However, she developed in her childhood a deep love for animals, and a huge fascination for Africa, which led her to embark on the adventure of her life.

So  young Jane, with no specialized animal studies, ended up in Africa as an assistant to paleontologist Louis Leakey.  Later, Leakey would realize that Goodall had a great capacity for the study of wild animals, and would send her to Tanzania, along with her mother.

Jane would then become one of the first researchers in this field, living in a hostile place that was not usually reserved for women.  However, she demonstrated with great grace that everyone was wrong, over and over again, as were other researchers of her time.

a different primatologist

Jane Goodall started to observe chimpanzees, even without having many studies about them.  This allowed her not to take into account the prejudices of the scientific currents of her time, who defended that animals are beings without the capacity to feel emotions.

Her mentor, Louis Leakey,  helped her get a doctorate in ethology, even though she hadn’t pursued a university career. Jane Goodall defended her thesis of a five-year study of chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, which is currently still active after 55 years since its opening.

Together, the so-called ‘Leakey’s angels’ (Galdikas, Goodall and Fossey) made important discoveries about their respective study species: orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. This allowed the study of primatology from a more empathic, rigorous and feminine perspective.

The animal behavior revolution

But Jane’s investigations were not limited to her doctorate, she  refuted several theories defended by the scientific community at the time. For example, he demonstrated that chimpanzees practice some of the most incredible hunting techniques in the animal kingdom, and that they weren’t exclusively vegetarian.

Furthermore, it transformed our concept of being human. Until Jane Goodall’s investigations,  humans were believed to be the sole creators of tools. The human being was defined as a ‘tool maker’, and no other animal was capable of this.

However,  Jane discovered that a chimpanzee used branches to access a termite nest. This has given rise to a whole new field within animal ethology and, thanks to Jane Goodall, we now know that animal tool use is very common.

Source: Carlos Octavio Uranga

Jane’s studies showed that chimpanzees had very different personalities, which attracted a lot of attention at the time. Jane was convinced that animals had emotions, as she herself had proven the existence of emotions in dogs, in this case, thanks to her pet.

Jane Goodall, the activist

Jane began to realize the forest devastation that was taking place in the nature park. She also began to realize that chimpanzees, like other animals, suffered in great magnitude at the hands of humans  and not just where she studied these animals.

This led her to  visit primate scientific experimentation laboratories, circuses and natural parks of other species.  So she began to see how the species she loved so much was captured as a pet, sold to circuses, or used for cruel scientific experiments. And so she decided that she couldn’t ignore it all, and became the activist she is today.

It was then that  Jane left the investigations in Gombe in the hands of her team and began to travel around the world to spread the word against the mistreatment of animals,  and in favor of conservation. She spends most of the year giving lectures and traveling to fight it.

He also  founded the Jane Goodall Institute to support this task and the “Roots and Sprouts” project, which allows children from all over the world to contribute ideas and actions in favor of the defense of animals. Today, Jane is pinning her hopes on these new generations to avert a global ecological disaster.

Main image source: Mark Schierbecke