With the sad and sobering news of the death of Anthropologist and Primatologist Jane Goodall earlier this week, we’re reminded of the astonishing and essential work she was able to accomplish in our understanding of the animal world around, particularly Chimpanzees.
Regarded as a pioneer in primate ethology, she was best known for more than six decades of field research on the social and family life of wild chimpanzees at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania.[4][5] Beginning in 1960, under the mentorship of the palaeontologist Louis Leakey, Goodall’s work challenged prevailing scientific views by showing that chimpanzees make and use tools, hunt co-operatively, and display complex emotions and social structures once thought unique to humans.[6]
In 1965 Goodall was awarded a PhD in ethology from the University of Cambridge. In the 1960s Goodall published several accounts of her research in Tanzania, including a series of articles in National Geographic. Her first book-length study, In the Shadow of Man (1971), was later translated into 48 languages. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 to promote wildlife conservation, followed by the Roots & Shoots youth programme in 1991, which grew into a global network. Goodall also established sanctuaries and reforestation projects in Africa and campaigned for the ethical treatment of animals in research, farming and captivity. Goodall was appointed a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2002, and advised organisations such as Save the Chimps and the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks.
Throughout her career Goodall wrote 32 books, 15 of them for children, and was the subject of over 40 films. She remained an active lecturer, travelling extensively to promote conservation and climate action. Goodall was an honorary member of the World Future Council. Among other honors, she was a recipient of the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, the Kyoto Prize, the Templeton Prize and the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2003, she was named a dame commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2022, Mattel released a Jane Goodall doll as part of the Barbie Inspiring Women series. Goodall served on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project from 2022 until her death.
And so I ran across this interview with Jane Goodall from 1997 with Phillip Adams for the ABC Australia program Late Night Live from 1997 as a tribute to her memory and her work. No question she had a profound affect on everyone she came in contact with and her deep commitment to saving the environment and understanding nature and the animal world will last for generations to come.
Here is that interview.
