Jane Goodall ~ Passion for Life

Jane Goodall was born on April 3, 1934 in London in a family of middle class, growing up in the postwar period in the family home in Bournemouth, southern England.

There lived his childhood and youth, surrounded by animals and dreaming write about animals in Africa. At 23 he began to realize his dream traveling to Kenya, where he worked with famed anthropologist Louis Leakey, until he sent in 1960 to Gombe, Tanzania, with the risky mission to investigate first wild chimpanzees zone. With the sole company of his mother and a cook, he pitched his tent in the jungle and began his research project that in theory would last 6 months and already extended by more than half a century.

Dr. Jane Goodall is a legend. She is a science hero, a trailblazing researcher who inspires people around the world.

Favorite readings of Jane during her childhood were books about the life of animals, such as The Jungle Book, which undoubtedly contributed to ten years and lies and dreams of going to Africa, live among the animals and write about they.

In 1957, twenty-three years just fulfilled, after studying secretarial and work in a company of documentaries in England, and thanks to the invitation of a friend to move to Nairobi, he could travel to Africa, although before, to afford the passage, worked several months as a waitress.

Kenya came into contact with the famous anthropologist Louis Leakey (1903-1972) and although did not have the appropriate academic background, after expressing his interest in the study of animals, was hired as an assistant, and traveled with him and his wife (archeologist Mary Leakey) to the Olduvai gorge for fossils of hominids.

In 1964 he married photographer from the National Geographic Society Baron Hugo van Lawick (whom he divorced in 1974), author of the most famous images of anthropologist and who in 1967, his only son, Hugo Eric Louis, Grub would.

In 1977 he founded the institute that bears his name, Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation, whose main objective is to promote conservation programs for the species and improving the living conditions of chimpanzees.

Jane Goodall's efforts are fully justified, since the populations of these primates have fallen alarmingly, and continued, in recent decades. Today, it is estimated that there are about 100,000 chimpanzees, bonobos 20,000 50,000 orangutans, gorillas 120,000 coast and lowlands and only 600 mountain gorillas. They hunt them for their meat and to use their bodies as sexual stimulants and traditional medicine preparations

The field work of Jane Goodall have led to numerous discoveries concerning the habits of chimpanzees, as the use and manufacture of tools and subsequent transmission of traditions that takes it rigged, the omnivorism about animals considered for years exclusively herbivorous, and discovery, observation and study of behavior adoption, cannibalism, establishing relationships and social structure.

Jane Goodall is Doctor in Ethology from Cambridge University and Doctor Honoris Causa by more than 45 universities worldwide, including two Spanish institutions.

He has been honored with over 100 international awards, including the Prince of Asturias Award for Research in 2003 in Spain, the Catalonia International Prize 2015, the Legion of Honor of the Republic of France, and the title of Dame of the British Empire. Similarly, he was awarded the Hubbard Medal of the National Geographic Society, the prestigious Kyoto Prize in Japan, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences, the Gandhi / King Award for Non-Violence, and the Gold Medal UNESCO. In April 2002, Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Dr. Goodall like "Messenger of Peace" UN, and was confirmed in his mission in 2007 by the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In 2009 he was appointed as an official sponsor of the Year of the Gorilla, by the UN.

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