“My Life With The Chimpanzees” by Jane Goodall

Main Index / Reviews Index / Nonfiction Reviews Index / 2018 Reviews Index

Rating: 4/5 Stars

A fascinating autobiography by Goodall about, yes, her life with the chimpanzees. It is elegantly told, using a vocabulary and simple writing style that should be suitable even for children to read. For, as the conclusion of the book shows, it is up to the youth of the world to protect the environment and to heal as much of it as they can.

The book can be divided into three main parts. The first part is the story of Goodall as she grows up, fascinated by nature and already performing the kind of observations that would make her famous later in life: diligently watching the hens in the hen house lay eggs. She is eager to continue her observations of nature as she grows up, but is held back by the needs of society to become a ‘respectable girl’ of that era.

But that was to change when, after saving up enough money to make a trip to Africa to see the animals, she encounters one person that was to change everything: Louis Leakey. He would put Goodall in charge of observing chimpanzees at Gombe, from which she would make her famous observations that would change what we think of chimpanzees.

The second part of the book details her various observations and interactions with the chimpanzees at Gombe. She details the initial frustrations she had gaining their trust, including one episode where she was surrounded by them and under possible attack. Then she gets a breakthrough and from then on, she was able to make her observations of them, including the famous one detailing their use of sticks and leaves as tools to get termites from mounds. She covers the movements of the chimpanzee troop at Gombe, providing details by naming several individual male and females and telling us about the dynamics of chimpanzee troop behaviour.

The third part is Goodall’s view of the world, on the destruction of nature and on animals being held captive by humans or being used in experiments. She details some of the efforts she and others have made to improve animal welfare, to protect wildlife areas and to educate people (especially the youth) on how to take care of the environment. In that, she urges everyone to take part.

Book read from 2018/01/16 to 2018/01/19