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Jane Goodall is a primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and environmental advocate whose studies with chimpanzees in Tanzania have changed not only our understanding of chimpanzees but also our understanding of the nature of human beings. Today she devotes virtually all of her time to advocacy on behalf of chimpanzees and the environment, travelling nearly 300 days a year.

Jane Goodall was born in London, England in 1934 to Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, a businessman, and Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, a novelist. As a child she was given a lifelike chimpanzee toy named Jubilee by her father, which sparked her interest in chimpanzees – and still sits on her dresser in London.

Goodall's interest in Africa brought her to the farm of a friend in the Kenya highlands in 1957. There she met Louis Leakey, the celebrated archaeologist, who was interested in studying wild chimpanzees in order to find clues to the behaviour of early hominids. By 1960 she was researching chimpanzees for Leakey at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. She had no university degree, but in 1962 Leakey arranged her admission to Cambridge University where she obtained a Ph.D degree in ethology – only the eighth person to be allowed to study for a Ph.D without an undergraduate degree.

In her research at Gombe Stream, Goodall became closely involved with the chimpanzees, giving them names and showing that they had  individual personalities, and displayed complex social behavior very similar human behaviour. Her research challenged two deeply-rooted conventional ideas: namely that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were unaggressive vegetarians. On the contrary, she found chimps creating and using tools, hunting monkeys, and occasionally killing one another – showing, she says, that “they, like us, had a darker side to their nature."

Goodall herself is a devoted vegetarian and advocates the diet for ethical, environmental, and health reasons.

In 1977, she established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe research, and she is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats, and the environment more generally. With nineteen offices around the world, the JGI is widely recognized for innovative, community-centred conservation and development programs in Africa. Its global youth program, Roots & Shoots, was started in a meeting between Goodall and 16 local teenagers in Dar es Salaam. The organization now has more than 10,000 groups in 120 countries.

Jane Goodall has been married twice. On 28 March 1964 she married a Dutch nobleman, wildlife photographer Baron Hugo van Lawick. The couple had a son, Hugo Eric Louis, nicknamed “Grub,” born in 1967. They divorced in 1974. In 1975 she married Derek Bryceson, a member of Tanzania's parliament and the director of that country's national parks. Bryceson died of cancer in October 1980.

Jane Goodall has received many honours, notably Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, United Nations Messenger of Peace and Explorer-in-Residence Emeritus with the National Geographic Society. She is the only non-Tanzanian recipient of the Medal of Tanzania. Her other honors include the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the French Legion of Honor,  Japan's prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, the Gandhi-King Award for Nonviolence and the Spanish Prince of Asturias Awards. Her curriculum vitae is posted on the Jane Goodall Institute website,  http://www.janegoodall.org/


Books by Jane Goodall

  • My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 1969
  • Innocent Killers (with H. van Lawick). Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Collins, 1971
  • In the Shadow of Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Collins, 1971. Published in 48 languages.
  • The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior. Boston: Bellknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1986. Published also in Japanese and Russian. Won the R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Technical, Scientific or Medical book of 1986 and the Wildlife Society (USA) Award for "Outstanding Publication in Wildlife Ecology and Management".
  • Through a Window: 30 years Observing the Gombe Chimpanzees. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Translated into more than 15 languages.
  • Visions of Caliban (co-authored with Dale Peterson, Ph.D.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. New York Times "Notable Book" for 1993. Library Journal "Best Sci-Tech Book" for 1993.
  • Brutal Kinship (with Michael Nichols). New York: Aperture Foundation, 1999
  • Reason For Hope; A Spiritual Journey (with Phillip Berman). New York: Warner Books, 1999.
  • FortyYears At Gombe. New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, 2000.
  • Africa In My Blood (edited by Dale Peterson). New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000
  • Beyond Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters, The Later Years (ed. Dale Peterson). New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001
  • The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do To Care for the Animals We Love (with Marc Bekoff). San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2002
  • Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating New York: Warner Books, 2005
  • Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink New York: Grand Central, 2009


Children's Books

  • Grub: The Bush Baby (with H. van Lawick). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972
  • My Life with the Chimpanzees. New York: Byron Preiss Visual Publications, 1988. Translated into French, Japanese and Chinese. Parenting's Reading-Magic Award for "Outstanding Book for Children," 1989.
  • The Chimpanzee Family Book. Saxonville, MA: Picture Book Studio; Munich: Neugebauer Press; London: Picture Book Studio, 1989. Translated into more than 15 languages, including Japanese and Swahili. Won the UNICEF Award for the Best Children's Book of 1989.
  • Jane Goodall's Animal World: Chimps. New York: Macmillan, 1989
  • Animal Family Series: Chimpanzee Family; Lion Family; Elephant Family; Zebra Family; Giraffe Family; Baboon Family; Hyena Family; Wildebeest Family. Toronto: Madison Marketing, 1989.
  • With Love New York / London: North-South Books, 1994. Translated into German, French, Italian, and Japanese.
  • Dr. White (illustrated by Julie Litty). New York: North-South Books, 1999
  • The Eagle & the Wren (illustrated by Alexander Reichstein). New York: North-South Books 2000
  • Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours. New York: Scholastic Press, 2001
  • Rickie and Henri: A True Story (with Alan Marks) Penguin Young Readers Group, 2004.


Films by and about Jane Goodall

  • Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees. National Geographic Society, 1963
  • Miss Goodall: The Hyena Story. The World of Animal Behavior Series, 1975
  • Among the Wild Chimpanzees. National Geographic Special, 1984
  • People of the Forest (with Hugo van Lawick) 1988
  • Chimpanzee Alert. The Nature Watch Series, Central Television, 1990
  • The Life and Legend of Jane Goodall. National Geographic Society, 1990
  • The Gombe Chimpanzees. Bavarian Television, 1990
  • Fifi's Boys. The Natural World series, 1995
  • Chimpanzee Diary. BBC2 Animal Zone, 1996
  • Animal Minds. BBC, 1997
  • Jane Goodall: Reason For Hope. PBS Special 2000
  • Chimps R Us. PBS Scientific Frontiers Special, 2001.
  • Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees. (IMAX format), with Science North, 2002
  • Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe. Animal Planet, 2005
  • Chimps, So Like Us. HBO film, 2006. Nominated for Academy Award
  • When Animals Talk We Should Listen. Theatrical documentary feature, co-produced by Animal Planet, 2007.
  • Jane's Journey. Theatrical documentary feature, co-produced by Animal Planet, 2010
     

Sites and links etc. :

Wikipedia
Jane Goodall Institute
Roots and Shoots Youth Organization
Jane Goodall Research Center

Jane Goodall TED Talks
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_goodall_on_what_separates_us_from_the_apes.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_goodall_at_tedglobal_07.html

Silver Donald Cameron's column about Jane Goodall

 

Interviews

  • Interview with Australian TV personality Andrew Denton
  • An Interview with Jane Goodall A discussion about private experimentation
  • Jane Goodall Charlie Rose interviews
  • Jane Goodall Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
  • Jane Goodall's interview with Rev. Alan Jones
  • Jane Goodall interviewed by Alyssa McDonald July 2010 on New Statesman