Goodall, Jane (redirected from Goodall)

Goodall, Jane (gd`ôl), 1934–, English ethologist and primatologist. After working with Louis Leakey, she established (1960) a research camp in the Gombe Stream Game Reserve, a national park in what is now Tanzania, to study chimpanzee behavior. She kept meticulous records of their movements, interactions, and social organization. Among her many findings are that chimpanzees are capable of complex behavior patterns and emotional relationships and have the dexterity and intelligence to make and use tools. In 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation in Silver Spring, Md. Later she established "Roots and Shoots," an international children's environmental education program. Her writings include My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees (1967), In the Shadow of Man (1967), The Chimpanzees of Gombe (1986), and Reason for Hope (1999).

Bibliography

See D. Peterson, ed., Africa in My Blood, An Autobiography in Letters: The Early Years (2000); biography by D. Peterson (2006).

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Goodall, Jane

(born April 3, 1934, London, Eng.) British ethologist. Soon after finishing high school, she fulfilled her childhood ambition of traveling to Africa, where she assisted Louis Leakey (see Leakey family), who suggested she study chimpanzees. She received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University for her work and remained at the research centre she founded in Gombe, Tanz., until 1975. In 1977 she cofounded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education, and Conservation in the U.S. Her observations established, among other things, that chimpanzees are omnivorous rather than vegetarian, can make and use tools, and have complex and highly developed social behaviours. Noteworthy among her writings are In the Shadow of Man (1971) and The Chimpanzees of Gombe (1986). She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2003.