Lived among primates

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Jane Goodall

(Bild: AFP)

Primatologist Jane Goodall, who became world-famous for her observations of man's closest relatives, celebrates her 90th birthday on Wednesday. British primatologist Goodall, who began researching a group of chimpanzees in what is now Gombe National Park in Tanzania in 1960 at the age of 26, revolutionized our view of apes, in which she soon identified traits and behaviours known from humans - both good and bad.

"Back in the early 1960s, many scientists believed that only humans had a mind, that only humans were capable of thinking rationally," she says in the documentary "Jane", which features a lot of footage from the early days of her research. "Fortunately, I wasn't at university and didn't know these things," she adds.

Goodall owed her position to the British-Kenyan anthropologist Louis Leakey. Her family did not have the money to finance her studies. Nevertheless, Goodall was determined to realize her childhood dream of living among wild animals in Africa. She worked as a secretary and waitress before setting off on her first trip to Africa, where she met the researcher Leakey.

The legendary primatologist Jane Goodall with a gorilla

(Bild: ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP / picturedesk.com)

Impartiality was Goodall's strength
Leakey, impressed by her knowledge and enthusiasm, commissioned her to study a group of chimpanzees on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the north of what is now Tanzania. It was precisely her impartiality that Leakey saw as a strength. He sent out two more women: US-American Dian Fossey, who was murdered in Rwanda in 1985 and researched gorillas, and Birute Galdikas, who grew up in Canada and devoted herself to orangutans on Borneo. Together they are sometimes referred to as the "trimates".

Apes slowly became accustomed to Goodall
Initially accompanied by her mother, Goodall braved all kinds of weather and dangers such as poisonous snakes for months to get close to her research subjects - initially in vain. The chimpanzees ran away. But little by little, the animals got used to the sight of the "strange white ape", as she likes to call herself. She soon became part of their community.

Jane Goodall was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Education at Uppsala University, north of Stockholm, in 2007.

(Bild: AFP)

Method criticized by some researchers
The "participant observation" method proved to be more successful than anything else that had been tried before. However, it also involved feeding bananas and interacting with the animals, which led to criticism. For example, it was considered unscientific to give the chimpanzees names instead of numbers. Goodall was not deterred by this. Her best friend became David Greybeard, a good-natured male animal with white hair on his chin, who was the first to dare to come near her. Greybeard opened the door for her to explore the group.

Sensational discovery: monkeys use tools
She watched Greybeard as he poked a stick into a termite burrow to catch the insects. He even prepared branches for this by stripping off the leaves. When she reported this observation to Leakey, he telegraphed back: "Now we must either redefine man. Redefine tool. Or we have to recognize chimpanzees as humans." Until then, the use of tools was considered the most important distinction between humans and animals. Goodall now believes that language is at least partly responsible for the "explosive development of the human intellect".

Jane Goodall at the World Economic Forum in January 2024

(Bild: AFP)

Goodall also observed tender behavior, hugging, touching and mourning in Gombe. However, a devastating polio epidemic among the monkeys and later deadly clashes between the animals brought disillusionment to the seemingly paradisiacal world. "I thought they were like us, but nicer than us," says Goodall looking back and adds: "I had no idea of the brutality they could display."

Doctor Dolittle and Tarzan as inspiration
She often cites the children's book series Doctor Dolittle and Tarzan as inspiration for her childhood desire to live among animals in the wild. She jokingly says that she was disappointed because Tarzan married the wrong Jane. She herself married the Dutch animal filmmaker and photographer Hugo van Lawick, whose photographs contributed significantly to her fame. The marriage broke up after ten years. She later married the director of Tanzania's national parks, Derek Bryceson, who died in 1980.

Goodall as a tireless campaigner for species conservation
Goodall turned to species and environmental protection when she realized that chimpanzee populations were shrinking everywhere and increasingly losing their habitat. She campaigns for a reduction in meat consumption, for example, and even in her old age still tours the world tirelessly to shake people up with lectures and encounters. With the Jane Goodall Institute, she has built up a global network with which she promotes a change in thinking.

Unlike many young environmental and climate activists, however, Goodall remains optimistic and empathetic. When asked by a young person how to convince people who deny climate change, she replied in her podcast: "One thing I would advise you not to do is get aggressive. They won't listen to you."