Dr. Jane Goodall - Needleminder
Ethologist and conservationist Jane Goodall redefined what it means to be human and set the standard for how behavioral studies are conducted through her work with wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.
In the 1960s, with no formal academic training, Jane Goodall ventured into the forests of what is now Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, to observe chimpanzees in the wild. During her time there, she made several observations about chimpanzee behavior that challenged conventional scientific theories held at the time, including chimpanzees are omnivores, not herbivores; chimpanzees make and use tools; and chimpanzees have complex social interactions. These insights altered the way we understood our place in the natural order and Jane’s work opened doors for other women in science.
Although Jane stopped doing fieldwork in 1986, she is still hard at work today, traveling approximately 300 days a year, raising awareness and money to protect the chimpanzees and their habitat through her nonprofit organization, the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), and JGI’s youth program, Roots & Shoots.
