The Study Of Primates In Jane Goodall's Early Life

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Childhood
Jane Goodall was born in London in 1934, and from the beginning she displayed a fondness for animals. This aspect of her childhood was initiated early in her life by constantly being fascinated with and observing the wildlife in her neighbourhood, and by receiving a gift from her father. This present was a small, stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee that sits on Goodall’s dresser in her room, even to this day. Although her mother believed that the animal would be an intimidating figure, it actually served to strengthen her bond with primates and led to her desire to study them as a career.
Early Life
From a very young age, Goodall developed a passion for animals and a yearning to explore Africa (a continent previously shrouded in mystery and the unknown). This was due to the fact that she always dreamed about travelling to the continent to observe and understand exotic animals and their natural habitats. She became enraptured in the books that focused on this subject matter like the Tarzan series and Doctor Doolittle. In 1957, Goodall’s dream became a reality and she set out to the Kenyan highlands. Here, she was given the opportunity to study the behaviour of primates in order to link the animals to early humans.
Activism
Although the work of Goodall has previously been limited to the realm chimpanzees, she has begun to broaden her
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Leakey also provided Goodall with the funding to complete a PhD in ethology at Cambridge University. Goodall became the eighth person allowed to study without previously receiving a degree (BA or BSc). Furthermore, she went on to write a thesis based on her five year period of study at the Gombe Stream National Park. Her account was titled, “Behaviour of the Free-Ranging