Jane Goodall's message: You can make a difference

During her stay in the Ithaca area, Jane Goodall spoke to students at Trumansburg High School, Sept. 10. Cathy Povinelli, 15, center, receives a chimpanzee doll that Goodall, left, autographed for her. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Elissa Wolfson

Noted primatologist and Cornell Professor-at-Large Jane Goodall spoke before a full house of more than 2,000 at Bailey Hall Sept. 11 about the power individuals possess to benefit the world.

Born in London in 1934, Goodall is indisputably the world's foremost authority on chimpanzees. Having worked as a waitress to pay her way to Africa in 1960, she arrived there armed only with secretarial training, plenty of patience and a persistent desire to understand animals. Her fortuitous meeting with famed anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey launched a distinguished scientific career, which has spanned nearly four decades and provided people everywhere with an unprecedented view into the lives of chimpanzees.

Leakey proposed a long-term field study on wild chimpanzees. At the time, it was unheard of for a young Englishwoman to venture alone into the wilds of Africa. But it was the fulfillment of Goodall's childhood dream, and she accepted the challenge. Thus began the longest continuous field study of animals in their natural habitat ever undertaken. In 1965 Goodall achieved the almost unique distinction of earning a Cambridge Ph.D., without having earned first any prior degrees. She then returned to Tanzania to establish the Gombe Stream Research Center, staffed today by Tanzanian field researchers and graduate students from all over the world.

Because Goodall distinguished between individual chimpanzees by giving them names instead of numbers, her behavioral studies of chimps were initially dismissed by her male colleagues. But her work has since provided inspiration for scientists everywhere. Goodall was the first to chronicle chimpanzees making and using tools, a skill once believed exclusive to humans. Such groundbreaking discoveries redefined the distinctions between humans and other animals and sparked world-wide conservation efforts on behalf of chimpanzees.

A recipient of numerous conservation awards, Goodall regularly contributes to National Geographic, Nature and other journals. Her life and work have been the subject of several television specials and she is the author of seven books, including the 1971 classic, In the Shadow of Man.

In 1977, Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation. Based in Ridgefield, Conn., the institute has offices in Canada, the United Kingdom and Tanzania. Today, at age 63, Goodall spends most of her time traveling around the world, promoting both conservation of wild chimpanzees and improved conditions for those in captivity, before packed audiences such as the one in Bailey.

"As our closest non-human relatives and as an endangered species, chimpanzees merit special concern," says Goodall. "Chimpanzee behavior, social relations, emotions and intellectual abilities are quite similar to humans. But tragically, wild chimpanzees are being decimated by habitat destruction, the pet trade, and the bush meat trade. And captive chimps are often housed in deplorable conditions, with their physical and psychological well-being ignored."

Friday night's presentation focused on her experiences at Gombe, on the interdependence of the earth's creatures and on the power of individuals to make a difference.

"You can't live a day without impacting the world," said Goodall. "You can make someone smile or cry, help an animal in need or choose not to buy intensively farmed meat or products tested on animals."

The audience, visibly moved, thanked herwith a lengthy standing ovation. "There are high points in life like these, when you know you are in the presence of an extraordinary person," said local teacher Robert Boyce.

"It was overwhelming to see and hear her -- I had tears in my eyes," agreed Holly Gosse, a Cornell veterinary student who plans to work with environmental non-profit groups.

Earlier in the day, Goodall visited Cornell's Ecology House. Sitting on the grass in a circle, she met with about 60 student members and potential members of Roots & Shoots, a group inspired by Goodall and dedicated to activities protecting the environment and animal and human rights, and she answered many questions about the ethical treatment of animals and what projects the students might take on.

Ecology House resident and natural resources major Stephanie Lu said Goodall motivated her to use her studies to "help set things right" back in her native Hawaii. "She has an understanding of animals, humans and the world that just glows out of her," said Lu. "It makes me so glad to know there are people like her in the world."

Goodall also spoke to two undergraduate classes and met with nutritional and veterinary school faculty during her campus stay. She is one of 18 current Cornell A.D. White Professors-at-Large, outstanding individuals who have achieved international distinction in their fields. During six-year appointments, professors-at-large visit the campus several times, with a simple mandate -- to enliven the intellectual and cultural life of the university.

The Jane Goodall Institute can be contacted at P.O. Box 599, Ridgefield, Conn. 06877; telephone: (203) 431-2099; fax: (203) 431-4387. To contact the Cornell chapter of Roots & Shoots, e-mail Cara Starke at crs18@cornell.edu.