Without Jane Goodall, chimps need new champions – us

THERE is probably no single person who has done as much for chimpanzees as the late Jane Goodall. One of the great British exponents of conservation – the other being the esteemed 99-year-old David Attenborough – she revolutionised the way we see both great apes and ourselves. We cannot let her legacy fade away.

Goodall’s early breakthroughs came from her observations in the Gombe Stream Game Reserve in Tanzania where she discovered, with the help of an older chimp she named David Greybeard, that the primates hunt for meat and, groundbreakingly, that they make and use tools – a skill previously used to elevate humans above the rest of the animal kingdom. Now we know that we are far from unique, sharing this talent with apes, monkeys, elephants and crows.

Later in her career, after witnessing devastating deforestation in the areas surrounding her field work, Goodall resolved to become the voice for those who cannot speak for themselves – her beloved chimpanzees. She fought to end the use of the apes in medical research, and set up refuges for those orphaned by the bushmeat trade. The Jane Goodall Institute, the global non-profit conservation organisation she set up in 1977, now supports community-led projects around the world.