Goodall, Jane (1934–)

Based on her primate research in the Gombe Game Reserve in Africa, Jane Goodall is the world's leading authority on chimpanzees and is considered a great conservationist. She was born in London, England, in 1934. When she was 11 years old, she decided she wanted to travel to Africa and possibly live there. In her early 20s, she found herself in Nairobi, Kenya, working as a secretary. About a year after her arrival, she met Louis Leakey, who was interested in studying apes and their relationship to humans. Both Leakey and his wife, Mary, began collaborating in their studies with Goodall. Leakey thought Jane would be the perfect person to begin a study of the great apes on the Gombe National Reserve in Tanzania, because ...