Jane Goodall, the first scientist to name primates, dies
The 91-year-old primatologist was the first to note that apes also produce and use tools.
BarcelonaBritish primatologist and activist Jane Goodall, considered the world's leading expert on chimpanzees, died this Wednesday at the age of 91 in California after a lifetime dedicated to researching the animal kingdom and preserving the environment. Her studies of chimpanzees and gorillas changed the perception of primates, demonstrated how closely they are related to the human species, and raised awareness of the need to protect biodiversity so as not to condemn animals with whom we share ancestors to death. Goodall was one of those people who transcended her work and became an icon, revolutionizing ethology and laying the foundations for a world where all living beings can coexist in solidarity.
Born in London on April 3, 1934, Jane Goodall always explained that since she was a child, she had a dream: "To go to Africa to study animals." At just 23 years old, she achieved it: she traveled to Kenya to work with anthropologist Louis Leakey for six months, investigating chimpanzee behavior. That trip, however, ended up becoming the project of a lifetime. She holds a PhD in ethology from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in honoris causa At 45 universities around the world, Goodall wrote around twenty books, as well as scientific articles and documentaries, and dedicated her entire life to the study of primates on the African continent, a work of biodiversity conservation that earned her around hundred awards throughout her career.
Under Leakey's direction, Goodall arrived in 1960 at Gombe National Park, near Lake Tanganyika, in Tanzania. Together with her mother and a cook, she set up her tent and began researching chimpanzees. She challenged scientific practice by giving the chimpanzees a name instead of a number, and little by little, she gained their trust. She soon overturned scientific doctrine when she observed an adult male chimpanzee, whom she named David Greybeard, attacking a termite mound with an empty branch from which he had torn off the leaves to extract and eat the insects. She was the first scientist to note that primates also produce and use tools, a skill long considered a hallmark of humans.
"I was on secondment to Cambridge and I was very nervous because first I was told I had it all wrong, that chimpanzees shouldn't be named but numbered, that you can't talk about their personalities or say they have problem-solving brains. And you certainly can't say whether they have emotions. Well, I knew the latter was wrong. When I was little, my dog Rusty taught me that such ideas were nonsense," Goodall explained last year in an interview on The New York Times, where she stated that at first the scientific community questioned her for being a young girl.
Fireproof until the end
However, Goodall's work is important because it has decisively influenced humanity's self-awareness: the very thing that makes us feel so special and different. Aside from building and using tools, the naturalist discovered that chimpanzees exhibited complex social behaviors: they hunted in groups and were also capable of waging war with others of the same species or practicing cannibalism, a dark side that also brings them closer to humanity. In fact, many years later, studies on genetic inheritance would confirm that the degree of coincidence between humans and primates was even greater than previously thought.
"We separated from the chimpanzee 6 million years ago, but it's clear that we have a common ancestor. What this helps us understand is how we differ. Sadly, we have evolved poorly. We have created the most incredible technology, but we are destroying the planet," she lamented. in an interview in the ARA.
In 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute, a non-profit institution dedicated to education and conservation to protect nature, and also founded the youth organization Roots & Shoots, Present in more than 70 countries around the world. She has also appeared in books and films and received hundreds of awards, including the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the UNESCO Gold Medal, United Nations Messenger of Peace, the Catalonia International Prize, and the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific Research in 2019.
The primatologist worked tirelessly until the very end, and last year, at 90 years old, she went on a 320-day tour to raise money for her non-profit organizations. He made it clear then that he would continue travelling to fight for the ideas he believed in until his last breath: "When you reach 90 you don't know when it will all end, but you are obviously closer than when you were 70 and much closer than when you were 60. But if you believe you have the mission to try it will make a difference; if a large part of the world hasn't received that message, instead of slowing down, what can I do but accelerate?"
