My Life With the Chimpanzees

Inspired by a stuffed toy, Jane Goodall became the first woman to study chips in the wild and in the process made history.

As a child, Jane Goodall was given a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee, and she has said her fondness for this figure started her early love of animals. While others thought Jane would be terrified by the toy, she adored it and it inspired a life-long love of animals in her.

Jane dreamed of a life spent working with animals, and when she was twenty-six years old, she ventured into the forests of Africa to observe chimpanzees in the wild. During her expeditions she braved many dangers and she got to know an amazing group of wild chimpanzees--intelligent animals whose lives, in work and play and family relationships, bear a surprising resemblance to our own. Through her work at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania and her own Roots and Shoots program she has become a tireless advocate for animals and the planet.

As for that stuffed toy, Jubilee still sits on Goodall's dresser in London.

JANE GOODALL was born in London on April 3, 1934 and grew up in Bournemouth, on the southern coast of England. In 1960 she began studying chimpanzees in the wild in Gombe, Tanganyika (now Tarzania). After receiving her doctorate in ethology at Cambridge University, Dr. Goodall founded the Gombe Stream Research Center for the study of chimpanzees and baboons. In 1975 she established the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education, and Conservation to promote animal research throughout the world.

Dr. Goodall is well known for her contributions to several stunning National Geographic films and has written six books for adults, including the bestseller In the Shadow of Man.

She has been named Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II and has received many awards, including the prestigious Kyoto Prize in Basic Science and the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Award, for distinction in research, exploration, and discovery.