Jane – Transcript
Jane Goodall is not like most people. She was born in London, England, but has spent most of her life in the jungles of Tanzania. Jane is a scientist, and the jungle is her laboratory. She studies chimpanzees.
From a young age Jane loved the animals of Africa. When she was a child, her parents gave her a toy chimpanzee. She still keeps the toy on a dresser near her bed.
Many of the things we know about chimpanzees comes from Jane’s work. She was the first person to notice that they make simple tools. She also noticed that they sometimes kill and eat small animals. Before her work, people had believed that chimpanzees ate only plants and fruit.
Jane saw that chimpanzee families do many of the same things human families do. When they meet, chimpanzees hug, kiss, and tickle each other. She also saw that chimpanzees are not always gentle and kind. For four years she followed two groups of chimpanzees who fought each other for food and land. The chimpanzees often attacked and killed each other. Jane described it as a “chimpanzee war”.
Jane’s work has helped us to better understand chimpanzee behavior. She has won many awards and helped to protect large areas of land in Africa where chimpanzees live. She has shown us that chimpanzees are very similar to people and that they need our help and protection.
