Express News Service
The chimpanzee is humankind’s closest living relative. Understanding how close our two species are, and getting to know chimpanzees better from a human being’s perspective, thus unlocking more doors to the mysteries of human evolution, has been the significant contribution of Dr Jane Goodall, whose decades of observation of the great apes in the African jungles pushed the boundaries of the then nascent field of primatology. Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, as Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall in London, to businessman Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall and novelist Margaret Myfanwe Joseph. Her fascination for apes, and for chimpanzees in particular, began as a child, when her father gifted her a stuffed toy chimp named ‘Jubilee’.
In 1957, Goodall made for Kenya, and contacted paleontologist Louis Leakey, who was looking for a chimpanzee researcher. Her real tryst with chimps began in 1960, when she went to the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, home to the Kasakela chimpanzees. In his 1871 book ‘The Descent of Man’, Charles Darwin had presented the idea that human beings and apes have a common ancestor. However, not much was ever comprehended about their symbiotic evolutionary bond.
Decades later too, when Goodall entered Gombe, the world knew very little about chimpanzees in the wild, their social structure and behavioural patterns, even as it was well-established that we shared 98% of the same genetic code. Goodall immersed herself into the chimpanzees’ lives to experience first-hand their complex society, and came to understand them as individuals with emotions. She set up a research station in Gombe and tracked chimpanzee troops. Gradually, she was accepted by the primates, and allowed intimate glimpses into their lives. Today, at 89, Goodall travels the world as a mentor, leader and speaker, to make it a better place, not only for us humans, but also for our closest relatives and fellow species.
The chimpanzee is humankind’s closest living relative. Understanding how close our two species are, and getting to know chimpanzees better from a human being’s perspective, thus unlocking more doors to the mysteries of human evolution, has been the significant contribution of Dr Jane Goodall, whose decades of observation of the great apes in the African jungles pushed the boundaries of the then nascent field of primatology. Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, as Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall in London, to businessman Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall and novelist Margaret Myfanwe Joseph. Her fascination for apes, and for chimpanzees in particular, began as a child, when her father gifted her a stuffed toy chimp named ‘Jubilee’.
In 1957, Goodall made for Kenya, and contacted paleontologist Louis Leakey, who was looking for a chimpanzee researcher. Her real tryst with chimps began in 1960, when she went to the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, home to the Kasakela chimpanzees. In his 1871 book ‘The Descent of Man’, Charles Darwin had presented the idea that human beings and apes have a common ancestor. However, not much was ever comprehended about their symbiotic evolutionary bond.
Decades later too, when Goodall entered Gombe, the world knew very little about chimpanzees in the wild, their social structure and behavioural patterns, even as it was well-established that we shared 98% of the same genetic code. Goodall immersed herself into the chimpanzees’ lives to experience first-hand their complex society, and came to understand them as individuals with emotions. She set up a research station in Gombe and tracked chimpanzee troops. Gradually, she was accepted by the primates, and allowed intimate glimpses into their lives. Today, at 89, Goodall travels the world as a mentor, leader and speaker, to make it a better place, not only for us humans, but also for our closest relatives and fellow species. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
