In The Shadow Of Man
In The Shadow of Man
Although the distance between Jane and the chimpanzees was too far for her to make any detailed observations, she still was not able to get any closer than 500 yards before the chimps fled during her first few months at the Gombe Stream Reserve. She still got up before dawn every morning to make way to the peak, where she sat for most of the day waiting for a group of chimps to pass for her to watch with her binoculars. This depressed Jane, how could they receive more funding if she could not even make accurate observations from such far distances? She made a promise to Dr. Louis Leakey that she would wholeheartedly and enthusiastically take on the work and that’s exactly what Jane was set out to do. A big part of Jane’s work was driven by that promise she made to him and she was willing to wait however many months for the chimps to gradually accept her presence. There was very little studies conducted on chimpanzees either due to lack of funding, the observers were unable to endure isolation in the wild for a long period of time in order to gain enough knowledge or the observers frightened the chimps causing their behavior to change. Jane also had no academic credentials or scientific background, but Louis believed that Jane’s patience and persistence made her a good candidate for the job. Being that Jane did not have any degrees or credentials made her an even better candidate with a fresh unbiased perspective. He also wanted someone with a sympathetic understanding for animals, which Jane had since she was a young girl. Curiosity and the chance of new discovery was Jane’s motivation to giving up her life in England to live in Africa with chimpanzees over a 10 years span. On July 16th 1960, Jane and her mother, Vanne Goodall, set out to Africa together after Dr. Leakey was able to accumulate the proper funds from the Wilkie Foundation to cover the necessary expenses. The money wouldn’t last long, but with enough research and new
Although the distance between Jane and the chimpanzees was too far for her to make any detailed observations, she still was not able to get any closer than 500 yards before the chimps fled during her first few months at the Gombe Stream Reserve. She still got up before dawn every morning to make way to the peak, where she sat for most of the day waiting for a group of chimps to pass for her to watch with her binoculars. This depressed Jane, how could they receive more funding if she could not even make accurate observations from such far distances? She made a promise to Dr. Louis Leakey that she would wholeheartedly and enthusiastically take on the work and that’s exactly what Jane was set out to do. A big part of Jane’s work was driven by that promise she made to him and she was willing to wait however many months for the chimps to gradually accept her presence. There was very little studies conducted on chimpanzees either due to lack of funding, the observers were unable to endure isolation in the wild for a long period of time in order to gain enough knowledge or the observers frightened the chimps causing their behavior to change. Jane also had no academic credentials or scientific background, but Louis believed that Jane’s patience and persistence made her a good candidate for the job. Being that Jane did not have any degrees or credentials made her an even better candidate with a fresh unbiased perspective. He also wanted someone with a sympathetic understanding for animals, which Jane had since she was a young girl. Curiosity and the chance of new discovery was Jane’s motivation to giving up her life in England to live in Africa with chimpanzees over a 10 years span. On July 16th 1960, Jane and her mother, Vanne Goodall, set out to Africa together after Dr. Leakey was able to accumulate the proper funds from the Wilkie Foundation to cover the necessary expenses. The money wouldn’t last long, but with enough research and new