My Life with the Chimpanzees

Jane Goodall has been fascinated by animals since the beginning of her life. She recalls observing a chicken laying an egg when she was five years old—she stayed still and was patient, watching the whole process. She describes this as her first serious observation of animal behavior.

Goodall believes that patience is key in learning about animals and has carried the virtue in her career as an ethologist. She is inspired by pioneering ethologist Konrad Lorenz, who is best known for his studies on greylag geese and their behaviors. Lorenz observed their faithfulness to each other and the phenomenon of imprinting, where baby geese follow the first object they see. Other notable ethologists Goodall admires include Karl von Frisch, who discovered the “waggle dance” of honeybees, a behavior that communicates the location of food to other bees, and Niko Tinbergen, who studied seagulls in their natural habitats. While some ethologists conduct experiments, Goodall prefers the method of observation, watching animals in their natural environments to understand their behaviors.

Goodall first began living among the chimpanzees in Tanzania in 1960. The chimpanzees at first were very shy, but living among them, Goodall came to understand their language and way of life. She poses a