PERSON: Jane Goodall

By Amila Monkewitz

Jane Goodall was born in 1939 in London. She always loved animals like I do and started studying them at a very young age. At 11, she wanted to live among Africa's wildlife and most importantly, chimpanzees. This was her dream and she fulfilled it. Imagine that when she was 23 she went by boat from England to Kenya. Luckily she was with her mom. This probably made her feel safe and supported by her mother’s love. She then lived out in the wild in different areas of Africa studying and observing how chimpanzees behaved. Some examples of what she was curious about was how they were in relation to each other like how they eat and how their families are set up. Jane Goodall was the first person to discover that chimpanzees eat meat, use tools, and have feelings.

Her research helped to change how other scientists thought about chimpanzees. Now she gives speeches about chimpanzees and the connections she made with them. She had a best friend that she made on one of her trips to Africa. It was a chimpanzee named David Greybeard. He was the first chimpanzee at Gombe to trust Jane.

Learn more about the Jane Goodall Institute, here

Get inspired by Jane about your life, here