Jane Goodall facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jane Goodall
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Goodall in Tanzania in 2018
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Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall
3 April 1934 London, England
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| Education | Newnham College, Cambridge (BA) Darwin College, Cambridge (MA, PhD) |
| Known for | Study of chimpanzees, conservation, animal welfare |
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| Children | 1 |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Ethology |
| Thesis | Behaviour of free-living chimpanzees (1966) |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Hinde |
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Dame Jane Morris Goodall (born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on April 3, 1934) is a famous English zoologist, primatologist, and anthropologist. She is known worldwide as the top expert on chimpanzees. For over 60 years, she has studied how wild chimpanzees live together and interact with their families. Goodall first traveled to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960 to observe these amazing animals.
She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots program. She has worked hard to protect animals and their homes. Goodall is also a United Nations Messenger of Peace, a title she received in April 2002.
Contents
Early Life and a Special Toy
Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in April 1934 in London, England. Her father was a businessman, and her mother was a novelist. The family later moved to Bournemouth.
When Jane was a child, her father gave her a stuffed toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. This toy was given instead of a teddy bear. Goodall says that her love for Jubilee started her early passion for animals. She remembers her mother's friends were shocked by the toy, thinking it would scare her. Jubilee still sits on Goodall's dresser in London today.
Journey to Africa and Groundbreaking Research
Goodall always felt a strong pull towards animals and Africa. In 1957, she traveled to Kenya to visit a friend's farm. There, she got a job as a secretary. She then called Louis Leakey, a famous archaeologist, to talk about animals. Leakey was secretly looking for someone to study chimpanzees. He believed studying great apes could teach us about early humans.
In 1958, Leakey sent Goodall to London to learn about primate behavior and anatomy. With funding from Leakey, Jane Goodall arrived at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania on July 14, 1960. She was one of the first of a group of female researchers known as "The Trimates." Her mother came with her because the park warden was worried about their safety. Goodall credits her mother for encouraging her to enter primatology, a field mostly dominated by men at the time.
In 1962, Leakey arranged for Goodall to study at the University of Cambridge, even though she didn't have a bachelor's degree. She was one of the few people allowed to do this. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in natural sciences in 1964. Later, she got her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in ethology (the study of animal behavior) in 1966. Her PhD work was based on her first five years of studying chimpanzees at Gombe.
Discoveries at Gombe Stream National Park
Goodall began studying the social and family lives of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in 1960. She made incredible discoveries that changed how we see animals. She found that chimpanzees have personalities and can feel emotions like joy and sadness. She also saw them hug, kiss, pat each other, and even tickle, just like humans do. Goodall believes these actions show the strong, loving bonds between chimpanzee family members and friends. These bonds can last for over 50 years.
Goodall's research challenged two big beliefs of her time. People thought only humans could make and use tools. They also believed chimpanzees were vegetarians. But Goodall saw a chimpanzee "fishing" for termites by putting grass stalks into termite holes. She also saw them strip leaves off twigs to make better tools. This was a basic form of tool-making. Before this, humans were called "Man the Toolmaker." After Goodall's findings, Louis Leakey famously said, "We must now redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human!"
Goodall also observed a more aggressive side of chimpanzees. She saw them hunt and eat smaller primates, like colobus monkeys. She watched a group of chimpanzees trap a monkey in a tree, then one climbed up to catch and kill it. They then shared the meat with others in the group. This was another major scientific discovery that changed ideas about chimpanzee diets.
She also saw aggression and violence within chimpanzee groups. Goodall observed dominant female chimpanzees killing the young of other females to keep their power. Sometimes, they even ate the young. Goodall said that for the first ten years, she thought Gombe chimpanzees were "nicer than human beings." But then she realized they, like us, had a "darker side." She wrote about the 1974–1978 Gombe Chimpanzee War in her 1990 book, Through a Window. Her findings showed how similar humans and chimpanzees are in their social behaviors.
Goodall chose to name the chimpanzees she studied instead of giving them numbers. This was unusual at the time, as scientists thought naming animals would make them less objective. But Goodall believed it helped her understand them better. She was criticized for using words like "childhood," "motivation," and "personality" for animals. However, her approach helped her form a close bond with the chimpanzees. For 22 months, she was even accepted as the lowest-ranking member of a chimpanzee group.
Some of the chimpanzees Goodall named include:
- David Greybeard: The first male chimpanzee to trust Goodall.
- Goliath: A bold alpha male and friend of David Greybeard.
- Mike: A clever chimpanzee who became the alpha male.
- Flo: A high-ranking mother with a unique nose and ears, and her children: Figan, Faben, Freud, Fifi, and Flint.
- Frodo: Fifi's aggressive son, who eventually forced Jane to leave the group when he became the alpha male.
Jane Goodall Institute and Conservation Efforts
In 1977, Goodall started the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI). This institute supports the Gombe research and leads efforts to protect chimpanzees and their homes. JGI has offices worldwide and is known for its conservation programs in Africa that involve local communities.
Her global youth program, Roots & Shoots, began in 1991. It started when 16 teenagers met Goodall in Tanzania to discuss problems they cared about. By 2010, the organization had over 10,000 groups in more than 100 countries.
In 1992, Goodall founded the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Centre in the Republic of Congo. This center cares for chimpanzees orphaned by the bush-meat trade. It houses over a hundred chimps on three islands.
In 1994, Goodall started the Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education (TACARE) project. This project protects chimpanzee habitats by replanting trees around Gombe. It also teaches nearby communities about sustainable farming. TACARE helps young girls by offering health education and scholarships for college.
Goodall now spends almost all her time advocating for chimpanzees and the environment. She travels nearly 300 days a year. She is also on the advisory council for Save the Chimps, the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary outside of Africa.
Activism and Advocacy
Goodall's focus shifted from just observing chimpanzees to a deeper concern for animal and human conservation after a conference in 1986. She is a vegetarian and encourages this diet for ethical, environmental, and health reasons. She believes farm animals are intelligent and deserve respect. In 2021, Goodall became a vegan and wrote a cookbook called Eat Meat Less.
Goodall is a strong environmental advocate. She speaks about how climate change affects endangered species like chimpanzees. She has worked with NASA to use satellite images to help stop deforestation in Western Africa. This helps both chimpanzees and local communities. In 2000, she co-founded Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to ensure animals are treated well during studies.
In 2008, Goodall asked the European Union to stop using animals in medical research. She also called for more funding for alternative research methods. Goodall is a patron of Population Matters, a charity focused on population issues. She is also an ambassador for Disneynature.
In 2010, Goodall and JGI worked with other groups to get all chimpanzees, including those in captivity, listed as endangered. In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to this rule. In 2014, Goodall wrote to Air France executives, criticizing the airline for transporting monkeys to laboratories. She called the practice "cruel" and "traumatic."
In August 2019, Goodall was honored with a bronze sculpture in New York City. This was part of the Statues for Equality project, celebrating women's contributions to science. In 2020, she supported making "ecocide" (mass damage to nature) an international crime. She also pledged to plant 5 million trees as part of a global initiative. In 2021, Goodall asked the EU Commission to stop caging farm animals.
Personal Life
Goodall has been married twice. In 1964, she married Hugo van Lawick, a wildlife photographer. They had a son, Hugo Eric Louis, born in 1967, and divorced in 1974. The next year, she married Derek Bryceson, who was a member of Tanzania's parliament and director of its national parks. Bryceson passed away in 1980. His position helped protect Goodall's research project at Gombe.
Goodall has stated that dogs are her favorite animal. She also has prosopagnosia, which means she finds it hard to recognize familiar faces.
Awards and Recognition
Goodall has received many awards for her work in conservation and helping others. In 2004, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace. In April 2002, she was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace.
Other honors include the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the French Legion of Honour, Japan's Kyoto Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2025.
The Walt Disney Company honored Goodall with a plaque on the Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. It includes a carving of her beloved chimpanzee, David Greybeard. In 2019, Time magazine named Goodall one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2021, she received the Templeton Prize.
In 2022, Dr. Goodall received the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication for her long study of wild chimpanzees. In April 2023, she was made Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau in the Netherlands. In October 2024, Dr. Goodall gave "A Speech for History" at UNESCO, sharing an optimistic message about protecting our planet.
Works
Books
- 1969 My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees
- 1971 In the Shadow of Man
- 1986 The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior
- 1990 Through a Window: 30 years observing the Gombe chimpanzees
- 1999 Reason For Hope; A Spiritual Journey
- 2009 Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink
- 2021 The Book of Hope
Children's Books
- 1988 My Life with the Chimpanzees
- 1989 The Chimpanzee Family Book
- 2001: Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours
- 2004 Rickie and Henri: A True Story
Films
Goodall has been the subject of more than 40 films, including:
- 1965 Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees
- 1984: Among the Wild Chimpanzees
- 2002 Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees (IMAX format)
- 2012 Chimpanzee (nature documentary)
- 2017 Jane (biographical documentary)
- 2020 Jane Goodall: The Hope
- 2023 Jane Goodall: Reasons for Hope (IMAX format documentary)
Images for kids
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Goodall in Tanzania in 2018
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Jane Goodall's signature
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A sculpture of Jane Goodall and David Greybeard outside the Field Museum in Chicago
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Goodall in 2009 with Hungarian Roots & Shoots group members
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Goodall in 2009 with Lou Perrotti, who contributed to her book Hope for Animals and Their World
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Goodall with Allyson Reed of Skulls Unlimited International, at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums annual conference in September 2009
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Goodall teaching about wetlands in Martha's Vineyard, US, 2006
