Jane Goodall

By: Sai Bhattacharya (Grade 6)

While walking through the forests of Africa with nothing but a notebook, a pair of binoculars, and a great sense of curiosity, a young woman with no science degree started her journey of discovering the wonders of chimpanzees. Jane Goodall was born on April 3, 1934 in London, England. As a child she suffered through prosopagnosia, a disability that makes it hard to recognize faces. When she was young, her father gave her a toy chimpanzee. This sparked little Jane's interest and helped her find her passion in animals. When she finally reached Africa, she started to explore the secrets within the forests. Gradually, she became deeply connected to the chimpanzees and helped advance the science of primatology. She discovered the similarities of chimpanzees to humans like tool-making, social-bonding, community-living, unique personalities and emotions. She proved these primates had behavior patterns like humans in multiple ways which were previously unknown. Jane Goodall followed the non-traditional and yet effective approach of connecting to these animals by naming them rather than just numbering them. She proved that chimpanzees and humans have had common ancestry to support Darwin's theory of evolution. Jane was an amazing self-taught scientist with significant contribution to the study of animals whose efforts of preserving nature focuses on the fact that the diverse animal species have a right to live and thrive in their natural habitat.