Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall was born in 1934. As a child, Goodall loved animals and wanted to be able to work with animals as an adult. After high school, Goodall couldn't afford college so she went to secretarial school. Goodall met a paleoanthropologist, Dr. Leakey, who offered her a job at a natural history museum. After a while, Dr. Leakey sent her to the Gombe Stream Game Reserve to study chimpanzees. Dr. Leakey hoped that she could discover things about early humans from her study of chimpanzees. In 1960, Goodall started her study and for a while did not see any chimpanzees. Eventually, a high-ranking male chimpanzee let Goodall observe him. Goodall made three major observations when studying the chimpanzees. They were that chimpanzees are omnivores, use tools, and make tools. Goodall upset many scientists with unconventional methods such as naming the chimpanzees and suggesting they had emotions. Goodall became an activist against deforestation. Jane Goodall is still alive and advocating for the wellbeing of chimpanzees.