Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall

(London, 1934) British Zoologist and anthropologist. Jane Goodall was born in London on April 3, 1934 , and grew up in the town of Bournemouth ( south coast of England ) . In its second birthday , her father gave her a toy chimpanzee named Jubilee , which endeared Jane from the start and now , many years later, still sitting in a chair at his home in England.

Four years felt very curious to know where the eggs out of the hen , which led her to spend several hours " investigating " the matter in a henhouse . Although the disappearance of the girl during those hours had alarmed the family, even called the police , his mother, Vanne , aware of the excitement of the small by the discovery he had done , instead of scolding her , sat listen with patience the wonderful story of how a chicken makes an egg.

In 1957 , twenty-three newly completed after studying secretarial and work in a company of documentaries in England, and at the invitation of a friend to travel to Nairobi, he was able to travel to Africa , while before, to afford the passage , he worked several months as a waitress.

In Kenya came into contact with the famous anthropologist Louis Leakey (1903-1972) , and although it did not have adequate academic training , after expressing his interest in the study of animals , was hired as an assistant and traveled with him and his wife ( archaeologist Mary Leakey ) at Olduvai Gorge for fossils of hominids.


Later, Leakey offered the possibility to study chimpanzees in the wild in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Moved there in July 1960 for three months accompanied by her mother, to the reservations of the British authorities to let a young woman lived alone with wild animals.

Thus began their studies on chimpanzees, which allowed him , among other things, observed in October of the same year for the first time that these animals build and use tools to capture termites that are part of their diet. Thus, it became part of the group of researchers , almost all women, with the support of Leakey have contributed to progress in the study of the great apes ( Birute Galdikas with orangutans in Borneo , Diane Fossey with gorillas of Virunga volcanoes and Jane Goodall with chimpanzees in Tanzania) .