Dame Jane Goodall Transformed Our Comprehension of Our Closest Primate Cousins
She stood as a tranquil powerful influence. And she never waivered in her life's work to protect the animals to which she devoted her existence.
During my conversation with Dame Jane Goodall recently, she exuded calm, even as she stressed that a great extinction crisis was facing our planet.
During our video conversation, I could see her stuffed primate, Mr H, behind her.
The figure was presented to her nearly 30 years ago by a close companion. Dr Goodall, who was in her tenth decade when we spoke, was still journeying globally with Mr H by her side.
Scientists I've consulted with this evening, whose work Dr Goodall motivated, or who were simply inspired by her energy, are in astonishment at her demise aged 91.
Dr Goodall had such an impact because "she sacrificed doing what she loved - spending time with her cherished primates - to tirelessly travel the world and share her passion with everyone she met."
Pioneering Observations
In the many years that Jane Goodall watched and researched chimpanzees, she transformed our comprehension of our closest primate cousins.
Fundamental to her groundbreaking discoveries were her inquisitiveness and capacity - quietly - to observe.
It was during her period in the jungle sanctuary at Gombe, in Tanzania, when she took time to watch a primate who was searching for food.
The chimpanzee took a stick, curved and cleaned it of its vegetation, then he placed it into a termite colony.
He then used that prepared tool to gather the termites into his jaws.
That finding - in 1960 - contradicted the belief that only humans fashioned and employed tools.
Overcoming Challenges
Even as she transformed our comprehension of the wildlife, Dr Goodall faced doubt and sexism.
She was not officially educated as a researcher. And, in the 1960s, that was atypical.
Her work in Gombe subsequently demonstrated that chimpanzees also create tight kinship ties - and even that they engage in warfare over territory.
But her technique – connecting so deeply with the animals she studied, providing them names and even describing them as "my friends" - made her unpopular with the male-led scientific establishment.
She had no traditional research education. But she explained to me that her supervisor and mentor, Professor Louis Leakey, saw the merit in her natural methodology.
"He sought somebody whose thinking wasn't clouded by the reductionist attitude of science to wildlife," she said.
Lasting Legacy
Now, the research community is processing the passing of a remarkable researcher.
Jane Goodall ultimately shifted her focus from her research subjects to advocating about preserving the environment.
When she communicated with me, she was promoting a tree-planting and habitat restoration mission that her eponymous foundation was implementing in Uganda.
"We still have a window of time to mitigate environmental shifts and wildlife decline," she said at the time. "But it's a opportunity that's closing."
One of the multiple experts Dr Goodall motivated told me: "Jane would be the first person to tell us that what the world requires right now is not grief over her absence, but to begin efforts.
"We all have a important tasks to complete to guarantee that we are not the last generation to share the planet with wild chimpanzees."
Dr Goodall was called "an remarkable expert who influenced others to see the environment in a fresh perspective".
She was impressive and it's profoundly surprising news, because she completely changed how we understand other creatures and how we consider ourselves - she questioned human exceptionalism.
