Growing up, Jane was always fascinated by wildlife. She knew she wanted to study living animals since before she can remember. When she was four, living on a farm helping to collect chicken eggs, Jane became curious as to where there was a hole large enough in the hen for an egg to fit through. After no one gave her a satisfactory answer, Jane hid out in a cramped henhouse for over four hours to learn the answer. When she came running back to the house to share her exciting new knowledge, her mother did not scold her even though she had called the police. Instead, Jane’s mother sat with her in the grass and listened

Since her personal studies, Jane has founded Jane Goodall Institutes in nine countries. These institutes have continued to study chimpanzees, making Jane’s and her followers’ the longest field study of any animal species in their natural surroundings. Jane has also published two books: In the Shadow of Man, a documentary of her first ten years among the chimpanzees of Gombe; and Through a Window, which deals with the first ten, as well as the next twenty years. Although the latter reads much like a novel, it is one of the most important scientific works ever published. Jane has continued her conservation mission through the Chimpanzee Guardian Project, and in 1984, received the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize for “helping millions of people understand the importance of wildlife conservation to life on this planet.”

to the enthusiastic child explain what she had discovered.

The chimpanzees’ habitat in the East African nation of Tanganyika, now known as Tanzania, is highly rugged and harsh. Many scientists were offended that Louis Leakey believed that someone, who was not only a woman, but had also never been to college, could be successful as a field researcher on such an assignment. Although this verbal criticism did nothing to discourage the eager young biologist, British authorities went one step further by actually intervening, not allowing the woman to take on the project, as they did not see Goodall fit for the assignment. The authorities finally gave in after her mother agreed to accompany Jane, now twenty-six years old, for the first three months.

In 1960, Goodall began her studies in the Gombe Stream National Park, on the shores of Tanganyika Lake, fulfilling her lifelong dream of studying “free, wild animals living their own, undisturbed lives….(uncovering) secrets through patient observation.…(coming) as close to talking to animals as (she) could.” It took a few years of Jane living among the chimpanzees before they became completely comforta

Some topics in this essay:
Tanganyika Lake, Louis Leakey, Toolmaker” Jane, Olduavai Gorge, Jane Goodall’s, Growing Jane, Jane Goodall, London April, Goodall Institutes, Instead Jane’s, jane goodall, wildlife conservation, jane’s research, behavior jane, louis leakey, living animals, goodall jane,