Jane Goodall: The Plight of the Chimpanzee

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Goodall, Jane

(born April 3, 1934, London, Eng.) British ethologist. Soon after finishing high school, she fulfilled her childhood ambition of traveling to Africa, where she assisted Louis Leakey (see Leakey family), who suggested she study chimpanzees. She received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University for her work and remained at the research centre she founded in Gombe, Tanz., until 1975. In 1977 she cofounded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education, and Conservation in the U.S. Her observations established, among other things, that chimpanzees are omnivorous rather than vegetarian, can make and use tools, and have complex and highly developed social behaviours. Noteworthy among her writings are In the Shadow of Man (1971) and The Chimpanzees of Gombe (1986). She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2003.

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