The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps

by Jeanette Winter

Jane watched ALL the animals in her world, big and small— earthworms, insects, birds, cats, dogs, and horses.

the robin even built a nest in Jane’s bookcase!

Perched high in her favorite beech tree, Jane read about Dr. Dolittle talking to the animals, and Tarzan living with the apes in Africa. She wanted to go to Africa too, and talk to the animals, and live with the apes.

A famous scientist, Louis Leakey, was looking for someone to watch and study chimpanzees, to help us understand the animal most like us. Would Jane be interested? Yes, she would!

Jane traveled to the place in Tanzania where the chimps lived—Gombe.

She set up camp, far from any human dwelling. That first night, Jane lay awake listening to new sounds— the croak of a frog, the hum of crickets, the laugh of a hyena, the hoot of an owl— and looking up at the stars. She knew she was Home.

Now Jane watched every day, all day— even huddled in the rain. She saw the chimps accept the rain, not look for shelter, as we do. And she kept notes about it all. “You have to be patient if you want to learn about animals,” she wrote.

“David Greybeard has—yes— he has TAKEN BANANAS FROM MY HAND. So gently. No snatching,” she wrote.

David Greybeard let Jane come close. She watched him shape a stick into a tool to dig for termites. Before this, nobody knew that wild animals made tools. She watched David Greybeard eat meat. Before this, everybody thought chimps ate only plants.

All across Africa, forests were being cut down, and the chimps were losing their home. Poachers were shooting grown chimps and kidnapping their babies to sell to laboratories, to the circus, and as pets.

Jane’s beloved chimpanzees were in danger of becoming extinct. They needed Jane to speak for them.

She traveled to big cities and small towns the world over, month after month, year after year, asking for help to save the chimps and the forests.

Jane returned to the forests of Gombe whenever she could. She climbed up to the Peak, calling “Hello!” to the streams and hills and trees, David Greybeard at her side.