Jane Goodall

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Transcript
00:00I don't know, they're kind of creepy.
00:07They're so much like people.
00:10Dear Tim and Moby,
00:12My biology teacher mentioned a scientist called Jane Goodall in class today.
00:16Can you tell me more about her?
00:18Thanks, PJ.
00:20Well, Jane Goodall is one of the most famous scientists of the 20th century.
00:24She's a primatologist, a scientist who studies monkeys, apes, and other non-human primates.
00:30Jane Goodall was born in London, England on April 3rd, 1934.
00:35She'd always loved animals and Africa, but as a woman, she didn't have many options for
00:39working with them.
00:40Nevertheless, she traveled to Kenya in 1957, hoping to establish a career.
00:46Her big break came when she was hired by a celebrated archaeologist named Louis Leakey.
00:52With his help, Goodall began studying chimpanzees in Tanzania.
00:57During that time, she had her first taste of living with chimpanzees and studying their
01:00social and family life.
01:03When she returned to England in 1961, she began working on a doctorate in ethology,
01:08or animal behavior, at the University of Cambridge.
01:11After that, she returned to Tanzania and her chimpanzee friends.
01:16At first, she could only watch from a distance using binoculars.
01:20But as the chimps got used to her, she was able to come closer and closer.
01:25Goodall ended up observing the same group of chimps for 55 years.
01:29Because they were so comfortable having her around, she was able to make a lot of really
01:33cool discoveries.
01:34Well, one of the first was that chimps use tools.
01:39They'll twist grass or strip the leaves from a twig to poke a termite mound.
01:43When the termites grab on, the chimps pull their sticks out and snack on the insects.
01:49Before Goodall observed this, people thought that only humans used tools.
01:53She also figured out that chimp groups wage war on each other, something else that only
01:57humans were thought to do.
01:59So her discoveries actually redefined what it means to be human.
02:04Right, well, one thing that she did that a lot of people criticized her for was to give
02:08the chimps she studied names instead of just numbers.
02:11Her critics said that she was getting too attached to her subjects to observe them objectively.
02:16She insisted that animals have separate personalities and emotions.
02:21She's written a lot of books, including The Chimpanzees of Gombe, Patterns of Behavior,
02:25which summarizes her decades of research.
02:28Yeah, Goodall's time with the chimps made her really concerned for them.
02:33Lots of great apes or large primates are endangered because humans are destroying their habitats.
02:39So in 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education, and Conservation,
02:46a group that helps improve and conserve the environment for everyone, humans and animals.
02:51Goodall's work to protect the environment and animals has earned her a bunch of awards.
02:56In 2002, she became a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and in 2004, she was named a Dame
03:02Commander of the British Empire, the equivalent of a knight.
03:06Goodall is still active today, lecturing and promoting conservation and education about
03:10the environment all over the world.
03:16He does not look like me.
03:18Woof, woof.