“To achieve global peace we must not only stop fighting each other, but also stop destroying the natural world.” These words came from the mouth of Jane Goodall, an 83 year primatologist most commonly known for her extensive research on chimpanzees in Africa. Her ground breaking observations (one in particular) made the scientific world step back and, in the words of Louis Leakey, a famous anthropologist and Jane’s superviser at the time, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man.’ Or accept chimpanzees as humans.” Jane’s love started from a young age when she received a stuffed monkey as a gift. She grew up idolizing Doctor Dolittle and dreaming of Africa. She first started her research in the early 1960’s when she was sent to an Anthropological …show more content…
dig at Olduvai Gorge to study the vervet monkey. She was sent by anthropologist Louis Leakey, of whom she had met in South Kinangop, Kenya. She was then hired as his secretary. Louis was fascinated with chimpanzees at the time and believed Jane had the proper temperament to conduct extensive studies. She agreed to conduct the study. So, Louis gave her the opportunity that many others wouldn’t as she had no formal scientific education or a college degree; he sent her to study chimpanzees on the Gombe Stream in Africa. This is where the Jane Goodall known today had her start. On July 16th, 1960, Jane conducted her first chimpanzee observation...she failed. The chimpanzees would let her no closer than 500 yards before fleeing. Within a year, she was allowed within 30 feet to the chimps feeding area. In 1962, the chimpanzees were very familiar with Jane and often approached her for bananas. Hence, she established a systematic feeding method to gain trust called the Banana Club. This allowed her to further study the chimps everyday behavior. While observing them, Jane made many discoveries. One of these discoveries was shattering the myth that chimpanzees were passive vegetarians. In fact, she witnessed cannibalism in one instance! Along with their feeding habits, she discovered that chimpanzees develop long-term familial bonds, using touch and embraces to comfort one another. Another discovery claimed that the chimps had their own language with over 20 sounds with specific meanings. Jane also discovered that chimpanzees used and made tools and threw stones as weapons. Using her research, Jane Goodall wrote several books, including her children’s book, The Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours, which tells the younger generation about her tireless efforts to keep her chimps from ever being lost. Jane Goodall’s work was important because her observations on chimpanzees made a huge impact in the scientific community.
As stated prior, Jane discovered that chimpanzees used and made tools. This was majorly eye opening because prior to Jane’s project, tool-making was a purely human trait. When Jane reported her observations to Louis Leakey, he stated the quote referenced in the first paragraph. As one could imagine, something that challenged people to redefine man would definitely be categorized as important. In fact, she herself challenged science to redefine “differences” between human and primates on Van Lawick’s film Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees, which lead her to being a staple in English and American households. After her years in Africa came to a close, Jane attended a conference in 1986 Chicago that focused on ethical treatment of chimpanzees in research. Jane then decided to switch her work from working with chimps to saving them. She turned to educating the public about endangered habitats and unethical treatment of research chimps. This, when asked, would most likely be Jane’s answer for her most important …show more content…
work. To this day, Jane Goodall is creating change in the world along with the scientific community.
After her widely known observations of the chimps, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977. On the program’s website, it opens with an inspiring message: “By protecting chimpanzees and inspiring people to conserve the natural world we all share, we improve the lives of people, animals and the environment. Everything is connected—everyone can make a difference.” As mentioned above, Jane is now an activist at age 83. She is an advocate for conservation, education, and human rights. Along with that, she also travels around the world speaking against nonessential use of chimps in medical research. Her stance is that scientists must try harder to find alternatives to the use of animals in research for, “It isn’t only humans beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought [and] emotions like joy and sorrow.” She encourages African nations to develop nature-friendly tourism programs, making wildlife into a profitable resource. She actively works with businesses and local governments to promote ecological
responsibility. In conclusion, Jane Goodall is a primatologist who conducted extensive work on chimpanzees in Africa. Her work proved to be very important, as it made several changes to not only the scientific community, but the world. Speaking of changing the world, Jane has her own institute made to protect the lives of people, chimpanzees, and the environment. To this day, she travels to countries around the world promoting her views hoping to make an impact that will follow her legacy for years to come. If anyone can bridge the gap between global peace and the natural world, Jane Goodall would certainly be waiting for her moment.
Next of Kin tells the story of a man’s life and how it was forever changed once he was asked to become an assistant for a research project with chimpanzees. The story spans over several decades of work. It is very emotional and telling. The book allows the reader to have an intimate understanding of how the research was conducted, as well as how the world had viewed and treated chimpanzees at the time which Fouts was involved in the Washoe project.
Nicole Starosielski describes animation as having “the potential to depict imperceptible, indeterminate and interactive environments.” That is what made this animation so brilliant. Truthfully I have always been very fascinated by Jane Goodall and her work, but there isn’t a way, other than animation, to put the feel of what she was going through on the screen.
No matter who you are, you are afraid of something. On the other hand, you also have things that you love and are even awestruck by its presence. Goodall describes her encounter with the bushbuck as an amazing sight while her encounter with the leopard was full of fear.
I observed chimpanzees in the Kimberly-Clark Chimpanzee Forest exhibit at the Dallas zoo. These African apes, like humans, are hominoids and fall into the larger category of catarrhines. Their scientific classification is Pan troglodytes. There were about ten chimpanzees in that habitat. Most of them were grown adults, except two children. They were robust and had black fur. The average weight of the chimps was listed on a display to be about 115 pounds.
Human are the most clever animals in the world. As the society developed, they are more concerned to seek for a harmony relationship with nature. The article “In the Forests of the Gombe” written by Jane Goodall describes the relationship of science and religious and the new understanding of humans through the forest. After Goodall’s husband died, she went through the Gombe jungle and found the new world by observing chimpanzees and staying in the quiet forest. Even though there are no communication between Goodall and chimpanzees in the forest, she still gets inner peace and enlightenment of science and religious.
“By the time we’re done, it’s quite possible that there will be among the great apes not a single representative left, except, that is, for us,” Kolbert deduces (225). Hunting a species has caused the endangerment and extinction of many species of animals and plants. Six out of eight species of the world’s bears are categorized as “vulnerable” or “endangered” to extinct (222). Advocating for rights of endangered species, and protecting the forests they habitat is a noteworthy method to prevent extinction caused by humans. As an individual, one could help by supporting and donating to organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, the National Wildlife Federation, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and more (262). Humans may ease their conscience by not actively killing endangered species, but protecting them
There are contrasts in tool kits used by different groups of chimpanzees, which seem to be a result of the environment in which they live as well as information that is shared by the group. For example, in 1973 it was reported that chimpanzees in Gombe did not use hammer stones, but those of Cape Palmas did. We will explore the tool use of Chimpanzees from the wild, including Gombe, Tai National Forest, and the Congo Basin---and contrast those with Chimpanzees in captivity in locations of Zoo’s both in the United States and abroad.
In his book, Planet Without Apes, Stanford introduces readers to apes, shows why the apes are endangered, how similar we are to apes, and why we should protect the apes. He does so in nine chapters – “Save the Apes”, “Heart of Darkness”, “Homeless”, “Bushmeat”, “Outbreak”, “In a Not-So-Gilded Cage”, “The Double-Edged Sword of Ecotourism”, “Ethnocide”, and “May There Always be Apes”. Stanford strategically chooses the name Planet Without the Apes, as a parody of the Hollywood franchise, hoping such a title would capture potential readers’ interests. Stanford does not simply tell us why we need to save the apes – he brings us on a journey with the apes and by the end of the book, we feel compelled to save the apes.
Did Jane Goodall’s research find the evidence about chimp’s tool making? Is the human the only species able to make the tool? How do you correlate this with human culture?
Do non-human primates have communication, language, both, or neither? By definition, communication is the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information (Snowdon). Communication is very closely related to social behavior since they are both referring to the ways animals interact with each other (Quiatt and Reynolds 1993). Conversely, language is defined as a system of communication using sounds or gestures that are put together in meaningful ways according to a set of rules (Haviland et al. 2010). Non-human primates and human primates are similar in many ways, and communication is no exception. They both have various types of communication senses and styles. Human primate communication senses consist of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. Non-human primates mainly understand the world through sight, but smell, taste, and hearing are important as well (Quiatt and Reynolds 1993). Human primates are capable of speaking a language, while non-human primates use different vocal calls to communicate. In essence, the difference is simple, human primates have language while non-human primates do not. Even though non-human primates do not have language, they do have communication.
Throughout situations and research conducted by not only Robert Sapolsky or Jane Goodman, but from many other credited sources, we can blatantly see the, if not identical, similarities between the two species of humans and baboons. The most apparent likewise characteristics of this can be read and documented in Professor Sapolsky’s book, A Primate’s Memoirs. Sapolsky, who spent hundreds if not thousands, of hours studying these Savanna Baboons, sheds a vast insight into ideas of social dominance, mating strategies, instinctual prowess, community settings, hygiene, and reform of an entire generation; many of which can be unknowingly seen directly in the common occurrence of a humans daily life.
Can one person, one person out of the billions of people on this magnificent planet, really make a difference? There are over seven billion people living on Earth, each with a separate and unique purpose. Jane Goodall, one person out of the seven billion, knew her purpose from a young age, and dedicated her life to accomplishing it. In Reason for Hope, Goodall unearths the connection and compatibility between faith and knowledge, and shares her project with her readers. Jane Goodall was a visionary, and had a project so immense that it must be broken down into three subprojects: the effect of chimps on chimps in Gombe, the relationship between chimps and humans throughout her time in the scientific world, and the human on human connection in our past, present, and future.
Chimpanzees are part of the non-human primate group. Though we share a common ancestor, evolution has pushed us in different directions. However this common ancestor causes humans to be curious about these creatures. As discussed in Jane Goodall’s video Among the Wild Chimpanzees we were once considered to be human because of our use of tools but once we observed these non-human primates using tools, this perception was changed forever. The question now at hand is if having the chimpanzees that we study in captivity makes a difference between studying wild chimps. These interesting creatures can be found naturally in the rainforests of Africa.
In her essay “A Question of Ethics,” Jane Goodall, a scientist who has studied chimpanzees for years, tries to resolve a heavily debated ethical dilemma: Under what circumstances is it acceptable to cause animal suffering to prevent human suffering? Her answer, however, remains uncertain. Although Goodall challenges scientists to avoid conducting unnecessary tests on animals, she does not explain the criteria by which scientists should determine necessity.
Goodall, Jane. 1990. Through a Window: My 30 Years with Chimpanzees of Gombe. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company