Dr. Jane Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, in London, England, to Mortimer and Margaret Goodall. Even as a child she had a strong connection to animals. Her parents gave her a toy chimpanzee that she took with her everywhere as a one year old. Jane read Tarzan of the Apes when she was little and got annoyed with the character Jane. She thought that she would make a better wife for Tarzan than the Jane in the story. She also read Doctor Dolittle, which gave her a dream of going to Africa when she grew up. Jane had a special relationship with her dog, Rusty, which formed a foundation for all of the work she would do with animals later. Rusty taught her that animals have real personalities and emotions.
When Jane graduated from high school in …show more content…
Previously, scientists had believed that chimpanzees only ate plants, but Jane saw them eating bugs and sometimes, small animals. She also observed chimpanzees using grass to lure termites out of their holes to eat, and she even saw them modifying grass so that it would fit better into termite holes. Until Jane made these discoveries, tool making had been one of the key distinctions that scientists used to separate humans from animals. Dr. Leakey famously wrote to Jane about the gravity of her discoveries, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.” Jane lived and worked full time at Gombe for twenty-six years, expanding the research center and the amount of scientists working there. In nineteen eighty-six, however, Jane shifted the focus of her work. The forests around Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve were being destroyed, hurting both the chimpanzees inside and outside the reserve. Chimpanzees had become an endangered species. Jane decided to stop working at Gombe and she began to travel to increase awareness for chimpanzees. She ended experimentation on chimpanzees and saved them from being traded for