Happy birthday to pioneer Jane Goodall

Images of primates dunking sticks into termite mounds and pulling out tasty snacks — the monkey version of fishing — are common enough, but they haven’t always been.

Indeed, though a well-known fact now, at one time, the thought animals might use tools or innovation to accomplish tasks would have been considered preposterous.

As astounding as the revelation must have been, it’s perhaps even more astounding that it was discovered by a 26-year-old British woman sent to live among and study chimpanzees living in the Gombe Stream National Park of Tanzania in 1960.

Jane Goodall, a secretary at the time, was sent to Tanzania by her employer, a Kenyan archeologist, to study chimpanzees in their natural environment.

Accompanied by her mother, with scant supplies or equipment and lacking any formal academic degrees, Goodall was trained on primate behavior and anatomy by English experts in the subjects prior to the trip. However, aside from the crash course on primates, the only things that qualified her for the job was a life-long love of animals and a passion for Africa.

It may have been precisely the lack of qualifications and motivating passions that allowed the young woman to gain unprecedented insights into chimpanzees.

Unbound by the academic structure researchers live by, Goodall observed the Tanzanian chimps with a human perspective, giving them each names and paying close attention to their social interactions.

As one might imagine, living in the African wilderness in 1960 was not a comfortable or easy endeavor, and Goodall battled illness and challenges while there, but she came away from the experience with a firm belief that chimpanzees were individuals with personalities and emotions.

That first trip to Tanzania changed Goodall’s life forever, and arguably, changed the world.

The thinking that Goodall brought to the science world — coupled with her discovery that not only do chimps use tools but also make tools to fit their needs, and contrary to belief at the time, are not vegetarians — revolutionized primate study, deeply influenced the perspectives held by researchers and arguably the world.

Often touted as one of the greatest accomplishments of 20th century research, the inexperienced, minimally educated animal enthusiast not only managed to unravel the long-standing fallacy that humans were the only tool-making creatures on earth and open eyes to the relatively unknown world of the chimpanzee, but she didn’t stop there.

Upon returning from her research in Tanzania, Goodall’s employer, Louis Leakey, sent her to Cambridge University in England, where she began work toward a doctorate in the study of animal behavior, quite unusual considering she didn’t even have a bachelor’s degree.

Six years after her first foray into the world of animal behavior research, she earned that doctorate degree.

For decades to follow, Goodall continued her research, returning to Gombe several times to study the chimps there. Though she gained the formal education to structure her research, her unconventional methods shaped a new approach to animal behavior studies.

Immersion chief among her contributions, to this day, she is regarded as the only human known to have been fully accepted as a member of a chimpanzee family, studying from within rather than observing from a distance.

Research not enough for Goodall, she set out to change more than science, she wanted to change the world, how people see it and how they care for it.

Scientist, author, lecturer, philanthropist, animal advocate and conservationist, the now octogenarian still actively travels the world, speaking and working to raise awareness about conservation.

Today, this amazing woman and pioneer celebrates her 84th birthday — may it be your best yet, Jane Goodall.

Sharna Johnson is always searching for ponies. Contact her at: [email protected]