P.S. Jane Goodall's Chimpanzee Notes

"I started with paper, pencil and binoculars."

At the age of 26, Jane Goodall (b. 1934) traveled to Tanzania to fulfill her life-long dream of studying animals. With only a pencil, notebook, and binoculars, her discoveries would fundamentally shift our understanding of what it means to be human. In the early 1960s, little was known about our closest relative, the chimpanzee. Jane’s discoveries helped revise scientific understanding. Once she witnessed chimps using tools to get at termites, scientists could no longer claim that humans were the only tool-using animal.

Goodall was as dedicated to her note-taking as she was to the chimps she studied. She innovated unique note-taking methods to support her unique study. So join me on an exploration of Jane’s note-taking habits during her time in Gombe Stream National Park.

Still from Jane, footage by Hugo van Lawick

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