ZooNooz Article - SEPTEMBER 2008

The woman who redefined man

On the eve of her visit to Australia, STEVE McAULEY recaps Dr Jane Goodall's unique career and reports on what she is up to now.

Photographs Micheal Neugebauer and Jeremy Rowling

Jane Goodall was a curious and inquisitive little girl who grew up to become one of the world's most famous primatologists. Born in England in 1934, she had an interest in animals almost from the beginning - no doubt helped by the fact that one of her first and favourite toys was a chimpanzee given to her by her father celebrating the first-ever birth of a chimp at London Zoo. No ordinary dolls for Jane.

She loitered in farmyards and as a four-year-old she was "lost" in a chicken coop for hours waiting to see how a hen laid an egg. She read animal stories. She dreamt of travel.

After finishing secretarial school, she saved to visit a school friend in Kenya and while there worked in the museum of Natural History as assistant secretary to famous anthropologist Louis Leakey, even accompanying him to Olduvai Gorge where he was carrying out fossil studies, particularly on human evolution.

He noticed her meticulous methods with the fossils and this led to his asking her to carry out a study of chimpanzees in East Africa.

So, accompanied by her mother, she began her first visit to Gombe National Park in Tanzania.

Like all good researchers and animal behaviourists, Jane had to be patient. After months of watching from a distance, the chimps eventually became used to her presence and two male chimps, David Graybeard and Goliath, allowed her to get close to them while they groomed each other.

Her observations in the field led to the challenging of many established scientific thoughts.

Not too many years ago, one part of the definition of the Human species was that it was an animal which makes and uses tools. Certainly many animals used tools but only humans were thought to be able to make them.

Jane's observations changed this when she saw chimps fishing for termites, first breaking bamboo sticks to the correct length and then stripping the leaves to make them fit into the passageways through the termite nest. She was also the first to record chimps hunting, collectively and intelligently chasing monkeys, then capturing them for food. Jane's chimpanzee research station at Gombe has now become the site of the longest field study of an animal species in a natural habitat. She has shown chimps to be highly intelligent animals living in complex social groups with complex interactions.

In 1965 she gained a PhD from Cambridge University and in 1977 she established the Jane Goodall Institute to protect chimps and their habitats. The institute has offices worldwide and supports a variety of conservation programs, one of which is Roots and Shoots, a community-based conservation program specifically aimed at linking young people with nature.

Roots and Shoots started small - with a group of Tanzanian teenagers meeting on Jane's back veranda, discussing how they could help animals and deciding to educate villagers about more humane treatment of chickens in their markets. It has now spread to almost 100 different countries and endeavours to promote its aims especially with indigenous communities.

Tarongas' Lani at the termite mound

Many city schools are already involved with different environmental programs, so now Roots and Shoots is working hard here in Australia to get remote and Aboriginal schools involved. Marree School in South Australia's remote north is Australia's first Aboriginal School to embrace it.

Some of the projects undertaken by the school through Roots and Shoots include: a study of bearded dragons, a visit to Adelaide's Monarto Zoo, the development of a vegie patch, the production of a solar hot-water system and the production of teddy bears for children who have suffered in fires and accidents. The program has been well supported by the Marree community and has become a part of school policy.

The school is also linked with a Native American school in South Dakota with whom they share similar issues. Its success in Marree has been mentioned in the South Australian parliament; it is the star of the indigenous focus which Roots and Shoots Australia will now proceed with.

Jane Goodall has led an extraordinary life and has been the recipient of many awards and honours.

Personally, among her many honours, she is a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and was declared a United Nations Messenger of Peace by Kofi Annan. Scientifically, she has changed the way we think about primates and their relationship with us.

Dr Jane Goodall will be visiting Australia to launch the Australian branch of the Jane Goodall Institute, to continue the development of Roots and Shoots and also to promote a new book called Hope for Nature. She will be speaking at Sydney Opera House on Sunday, October 12, sharing stories from Hope for Nature and highlighting the scientists who are working around the world on species which are being saved from the brink of extinction.

She will also introduce local scientist "heroes" who will share their research results on native flora and fauna. Tickets can be obtained from Sydney Opera House on 9250 7777.

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