"Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, we will help. Only if we help, we shall be saved." --Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is perhaps the most renowned authority on primates, particularly chimpanzees. Her studies have spanned over 55 years. She has a Ph. D. In ethology, which is the study of animal behavior with a focus on behavior under natural conditions. She is a primatologist, ethnologist and a anthropologist.

Valarie Jane Morris-Goodall was born on April 3, 1934 in England and is still alive today. Her love of animals began early on. When she was one years old, her father gave her a stuffed toy chimp that she named Jubilee. It still sits on her desk today. It was when she read Animal Farm by Hugh Loting however, that she decided she wanted to go to Africa.

When Jane graduated from high school, her parents didn't have the money to send her to the university, so she worked as a secretary and for filmmakers, adding music to their documentaries. When a friend invited her to Africa, she worked and saved until she had money to go. Her friend introduced her to Dr. Leakey, who was a famous anthropologist and paleontologist. She began working for him as an assistant and secretary. When she began working with him at excavation sites, he knew she was the person he wanted to work with the chimpanzees.

So, in 1960, she set up camp in the Gombe Stream Game a Reserve. She was armed with the only tools she ever used..a notebook and a pair of binoculars.

Goodall took the world by storm, very quickly on was she able to observe new things and establish a relationship with the chimps. Her first chimp friend was and offer male who she named David Greybeard.

There were several significant findings. The first was that chimps were eating small bushings and other small animals. Previously, people thought they were strictly vegetarians. Second, and the most significant was her observation of chimps creating tools to catch termites. This significant observation caused everyone change the way they thought about chimps. Chimps were obviously more intelligent and more like humans than previously though. National Geographic began sponsoring her, Leakey wrote her, "Now we must redefine 'tools', redefine 'man', or accept chimpanzees as humans."

After her discoveries, Leakey sent her to Cambridge University to earn her Ph.D. In ethology. This was extraordinary because she is one of only eight people to ever have a doctoral dissertation accepted by Cambridge without first having an undergraduate degree. She now has honorary degrees from Harvard, Syracuse, Rutgers, Uppsala University, University of Liverpool, University of Toronto, National University of Córdoba, American University of Paris and the National Tsing Hua University.

Goodall also observed other important findings such as chimpanzees having a complex social system that included war and adoption of abandoned young. She has also discovered that they have a primitive language system that includes of 120 different sounds.

She has created a research set of protocols and ethics that are still followed today.