Contact: Kathie Dibell, [email protected], or Sharon Poff, [email protected], both at 570-577-3260
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Jane Goodall, the world's leading authority on chimpanzees, will speak at Bucknell Friday, Oct. 15, about her nearly 40 years of research on chimpanzees and her wildlife conservation efforts.
The title of Goodall's lecture is from her new book,"Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey."
Since she first went to the jungles of the Gombe Game Reserve in Tanganika (now Tanzania) in 1960 to study the chimps in their natural environment, Goodall has published scores of papers in scientific journals, authored a dozen books and written countless articles. She and her chimpanzees have been featured in documentaries produced by National Geographic, HBO and the BBC.
She established the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation in 1977 to support ongoing research on wild chimpanzees, now an endangered species, to help arrest the decline of chimp populations in the wild and to combat neglect and abuse of chimps in captivity. The institute is headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., and has offices in eight countries.
Goodall's lecture will be at 8 p.m. in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts. The tickets are free, but must be reserved by calling the Weis Center box office at 570-577-3700. Goodall will have a book signing after the lecture for her new book, "Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey."
Douglas K. Candland, director of Bucknell's animal behavior program and professor of psychology, said of Goodall: "When the history of the concluding century is written, Jane Goodall will be recognized as among those few people who changed human opinion of itself and its surroundings. Hers has been a scientific mission coupled with a humane one. She has melded both achievements in ways that have reset our understanding of ourselves."
A British citizen, Goodall earned her Ph.D. in ethology in 1965 from Cambridge University and returned to Africa to continue her research and to establish the Gombe Stream Research Centre. Her discoveries laid the foundation for all future primate studies. One of her many observations that amazed the world was that of chimpanzees making and using tools. This behavior was previously believed to separate humans from other animals.
Candland noted, "While some biographers will focus on her time spent in developing Gombe and studying its chimpanzees along with her unceasing concern for animal life to be unfettered, others will recognize her work as a scientist. As is true of all great scientists, she has helped all of us to understand our world and its connecting links among living beings in new ways; she has given to many the gift of appreciating our fellow creatures on this planet. She has done so with grace, respect for the opinions of others and a genuine concern that human beings honor life, wherever it is found."
Part of Goodall's time on campus will be spent with Bucknell students who are in the animal behavior program and/or in environmental studies. Bucknell's primate center, the oldest such colony at an undergraduate institution, was founded three decades ago by Candland and his colleagues, and now houses 30 baboons, lemurs and squirrel monkeys.
Goodall learned and taught others how similar chimpanzees are to humans in their behavior. The chimps establish life-long relationships, display altruism and act much like humans do. "They show gestures that we're so familiar with ourselves in human cultures around the world -- kissing, embracing, holding hands, patting one another on the back, swaggering, tickling," Goodall has noted about humans' closest relatives. Chimpanzees and humans differ genetically by just over 1 percent.
The work of the Jane Goodall Institute has expanded through the years. Current projects include: Roots & Shoots, an environmental and humanitarian program for youth with groups in 38 states and 30 other countries; TACARE, a reforestation and community development project in western Tanzania; ChimpanZoo, an international research program to study chimpanzees in captivity in order to improve their living conditions; sanctuaries for chimps orphaned by poachers to provide long-term care and rehabilitation; and continued research on chimpanzee behavior and social relations by the Gombe Stream Research Centre. Gombe is now the setting of the longest field study of any animal species in its natural habitat.
Goodall is a distinguished adjunct professor at the University of Southern California and an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. The Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies is located at the University of Minnesota.
Goodall's visit to Bucknell is sponsored by Ron Marsilio, a 1971 alumnus from Westport, Conn., and the university Office of Alumni, Parents and Volunteers. Marsilio is treasurer for the board of the Jane Goodall Institute.
###
RSS