London – The British primatologist Jane Goodallwho turns 90 this Wednesday, has reached global stature with his study of chimpanzees, which he has examined down to the last detail in order to better understand the evolution of human beings.
Known as 'Lady Chimpanzee', the naturist has dedicated her life to the study and protection of these primates.
The emotional hug he received from Wounda, a chimpanzee whom he returned to freedom in 2013 in the Congo and that, shortly after leaving the cage, he looked at her and hugged her in a gesture of gratitude, is a symbol of the life of dedication that Goodall has offered to those animals, which she considers “our closest relatives.”
When he first set foot Africaat only 23 years old on a trip to Kenyathe Londoner had a secretarial degree and some work experience in a documentary company in her suitcase, but she did not imagine that she would find the purpose of her life on that continent.
A vital encounter
Fate placed her in the path of anthropologist Louis Leakey (1903-1972) in Nairobi, with whom she traveled as an assistant to the Olduvai Gorge, popularly called “the cradle of humanity”, in search of hominid fossils.
Her career as a primatologist took off three years later, when she moved, accompanied by her mother, to Gombe National Park in Tanzania – next to Lake Tanganyika – to live for three months surrounded by chimpanzees in their natural habitat.
In a 2017 'National Geographic' documentary, Goodall recalled how Leakey had sent her to Gombe in the hope that analyzing chimpanzees would offer clues about what prehistoric humans were like.
It was then that he discovered that these primates with deep eyes and anthropomorphic bodies introduced wooden sticks into the nests of termites to eat them later, that is, that they had the ability to build tools and that they were not herbivores as was believed and they came to hunt small mammals to feed.
“Now we have to redefine the word 'man', the word 'tool' or include chimpanzees with humans,” Leaky said, excited, when his disciple told him of her discovery.
Unconditional fan as a child of “The Jungle Book”, “Tarzan” and “Dr. Dolittle”, Jane Goodall decided to study chimpanzees to try to better understand human evolution.
His research continued in the field, he formed a scientific study team, obtained an honorary doctorate in Ethology from the English University of Cambridge in 1965 and, in 1977, founded the institute that bears his name, whose objective is to promote conservation programs of the species and improve the living conditions of chimpanzees.
Since she abandoned field work in 1987, delegating that work to the members of her team, Goodall spent two months of the year in Bournemouth, a coastal city in the south of England where she grew up, and dedicated the rest of the year to traveling all over. the world to spread their ideas about the need to conserve nature.
Early contact
Jane Goodall was born in London on April 3, 1934 and her first contact with a chimpanzee occurred on her second birthday, when her father gave her a stuffed animal called Jubilee, which the little girl immediately became fond of.
Among her awards are the Tanzania Medal, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal, and the Kyoto, Caring, and Gandhi/King of Nonviolence awards.
In 2002 she was named United Nations Ambassador of Peace for “her dedication to what is best in humanity,” nature, and in 2003 she received the Benjamin Franklin Medal.
In Spain he won the Prince of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Research for his “transcendental scientific contribution” to the understanding of humanity, in 2003, and the International Prize of Catalonia, in 2015.
Most recently, she was recognized with the Templeton Prize, in 2021, and the Stephen Hawking Medal for Scientific Communication, in 2022.
Likewise, Goodall holds more than twenty honorary doctorates from universities and institutions around the world.
Her prestige has even led her to inspire a children's series, 'Jane', broadcast on Apple TV, about a girl with the same name and a chimpanzee as her adventure companion.
In recent years, her tireless dissemination work has led her to become involved in a multitude of environmental and naturalist causes, in defense of biodiversity and animal rights.
“It is perfectly possible to be romantically involved with chimpanzees and feel empathy for them,” Goodall likes to say, an explorer who crossed the boundaries of mere observation to immerse herself in the world of primates.