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Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall was born in London, England on April 3, 1934. She grew up in Bournemouth, England with a extraordinary appreciation of animals. She began to study and share her interests in animals at a very early age with her friends. Her mother, Vanne Goodall, then encouraged her to start a club to study animals. She called it the Alligator Club.

Jane also loved books about animals. She especially loved The Story of Dr. Doolittle, by Hugh Lofting and decided that someday she would go to Africa. After she finished school, Jane made her first trip to Africa and got to see the exotic animals and unspoiled area described in Dr. Doolittle's adventures. She was twenty-three years old. During this trip, she met Dr. Louis Leakey, the famous paleontologist who studied man's early ancestors. Dr. Leakey believed that the study of wild apes, and chimpanzees in particular, might add useful information about origin of human behavior. He decided that Jane Goodall was the right person to study wild chimpanzees and chose the chimpanzees of Gombe, Tanzania for her study.

On July 16, 1960 Jane Goodall returned to Africa, specifically to Tanzania, to begin her now famous study of chimpanzees. During the more than nearly forty years of research at Gombe National Park, she has learned many new and exciting things about chimpanzee behavior and how similar their behavior is to humans. She has taught us how important it is for young chimpanzees to grow up with their mothers, watching and participating in the care of their brothers and sisters; that chimpanzees depend on learned behavior, for social skills, tool production, and hunting and food preparation behavior. And, she has taught us the importance of protecting and conserving all animal species so that they may continue to occupy their rightful place in nature.