Gombe Stream study

In July 1960, Goodall traveled all the way to Tanzania and started her Gombe Stream National Park Chimpanzee study, accompanied by her mother for safety reasons. The first group of chimpanzees she tried to study ran away, and she had to follow another group, the Kasakela chimpanzee community.

Since Goodall was not trained in scientific research, she tended to use unconventional research methods. Goodall showed up near a chimpanzee feeding area every morning, and finally after a whole year, had the chimpanzees familiar enough with her to allow her close to their feeding grounds. After another year, she was accepted into the fold and was able to live with them and study their society and behavior. Goodall also gave the chimpanzees names instead of the usual numbers, and developed close bonds with the primates. It also gave her the achievement of being the only human to ever be welcomed into chimpanzee society.

goodall-touch_1414_600x450Photograph by Michael Nichols, retrieved from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/jane-goodall/

Goodall spent her time with the chimpanzee community mimicking their behavior, living with them, and eating the same food they did. This allowed her to develop the “banana club”, a feeding method she used to gain the trust of the primates as well as to allow her to observe their patterns. During her time with the chimps, Goodall wrote the memoir Through a Window – My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe, and described her observations and learnings in it.

through a windowRetrieved from www.swoo.com