Jane Goodall on living with wild chimpanzees

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

Jane Goodall, aged 86, reflects on the years she spent living with the wild chimpanzees in Gombe in eastern Tanzania and tells Jim Al Khalili why she believes the best way to bring about change is to ‘creep into people’s hearts’. Jane shot to fame when she appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1963 and appeared in a documentary film directed by Orson Welles. Her ground breaking observations introduced us to the social and emotional lives of wild chimpanzees and changed our view of what it is to be human. Images of her younger self play wrestling with baby chimps make Jane feel slightly apprehensive now but at the time she didn’t give it a second thought. However, she did take care to protect her young son. Seeing distressing footage of chimps who were living in captivity, she gave up fieldwork to become an activist, working to liberate chimpanzees that were being used for medical research or sold for meat or as pets, and setting up chimp sanctuaries for animals that were no longer able to live in the wild. For the last thirty years, she has campaigned gently but relentlessly to protect wild animals and wild places, touring the world and performing on stage in front of huge audiences. Her global youth programme, Roots and Shoots has inspired and empowered millions of people to understand and respect nature, leading some to call her ‘the mother Theresa of the environment’. A label she dislikes. Producer: Anna Buckley Photo credit: the Jane Goodall Institute / By Bill Wallauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.2	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know I also know that comedy is really
0:24.4	subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer
0:29.6	from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you
0:36.2	fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:40.3	Hello, well it's not often I get to talk to someone who's lived with wild chimpanzees.
0:45.2	Yes, my guest today is the legendary Jane Goodle.
0:48.6	A woman who made us all reflect on what it is to be human and who inspired millions of people around the world to care about wild animals and wild places.
0:59.0	BBC Sounds Music, Podcasts.
1:03.4	Jane Goodall shot to fame in December 1965
1:07.4	when she appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine
1:10.6	through magazine and newspaper articles, scientific papers, books, documentary films,
1:16.0	she's introduced millions of people around the world to the social and emotional lives of the wild chimpanzees of Gombe in eastern Tanzania.
1:24.0	When the alpha female flow died back in 1972, she was so well loved she had an obituary in the
1:30.8	times.
1:31.8	Jane's observations made over many years changed the way we viewed
1:35.8	our closest animal relatives and made us think about what it is to be human. She's worked tirelessly
1:42.0	to liberate chimpanzees that were being kept in captivity for medical research or in zoos.
	...

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