With profound sadness, CARTA mourns the passing of Dr. Jane Goodall. A pioneering primatologist, tireless advocate for conservation, and one of the greatest voices for our shared humanity, her extraordinary legacy forged a path for all who seek to understand our place in the natural world. Dr. Jim Moore, CARTA member and Emeritus Associate Professor of Anthropology at UC San Diego, had the privilege of working alongside Jane at Gombe Stream Research Centre as a graduate student researcher. Reflecting on her remarkable life and work, Jim shares:
“Jane Goodall’s discovery of chimpanzee tool manufacture famously led Louis Leakey to conclude that we needed to redefine “[hu]man”. In fact, she did something far more profound. Coupled with her provision of data and stories forcing science to acknowledge the depth and range of chimpanzee emotion and personality (more significant, I believe), her findings redefined the very question of “who are we?“. It is no longer about how we got to one side of a chasm, but instead a quantitative search for meaningful differences between humans and other animals. And that was just Jane’s first act. For the last four decades she has been second to none in striving to promote animal welfare, conservation, rural health and development, and more. Her life was devoted to making the world a better place; remembering her optimism – her reasons for hope – will help keep it that way.”
Photo courtesy of Dr. Pascal Gagneux, who took a picture of the original photograph at Jane’s house, Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Here, Jane Goodall poses with fellow field researchers and students at Gombe Stream Research Centre, Tanzania, in 1974. Front row: Jim Moore, Lisa Nowell, John Crocker; Back row: Curt Busse, Caroline Tutin, Grant Heidrich, Tony Collins, Julie Johnson, Emilie Van Zinnicq Bergmann, and Jane Goodall. If you are the rights holder or can provide further information about the image’s provenance, please contact us so we may update this attribution accordingly.
