At
the age of eleven, Jane Goodall's dream was to go to Africa and maybe even to
live there. She spent a lot of her childhood admiring the Tarzan movies and books
and thought she would make a really good Jane for Tarzan. It wasn't easy for a
young girl at that time to achieve the dream of living in Africa, but with her
mother's encouragement, she made the dream come true by her early twenties. She
began her work in Africa as a secretary but soon met Louis Leakey and his wife
who were beginning a study of the Great Apes in the jungles of Zaire and Kenya.
Mr. Leakey took Jane on as his assistant and was so pleased with her work that
he chose her to do a study of the chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. Mr. Leakey warned
Jane that the research could take ten years, while Jane thought it might take
only three. However, the research has now taken most of Jane's life. During the
past forty years or more, Jane Goodall's discoveries have changed the way we view
animals in general. Her observations have proved that non-human animals have emotions,
create communities and, in the case of chimpanzees, even create practical tools
for daily tasks, as humans do. Jane's work with the chimps has led her into founding
the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots program to promote "care and
concern for the animals, the environment and the human community."
Bio
© Larry Auld
