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Jane Goodall was just 26 years old when she left England for East Africa — setting out for what is now Tanzania — to study chimpanzees in Gombe National Park on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The journey, taken in the summer of 1960, was Jane's first step in fulfilling a lifelong dream of working with wild animals in their natural habitat.

Legendary paleontologist Louis Leakey had been looking for someone with unique observational skills (and tremendous patience) to study chimpanzees in the wild. In Jane Goodall, he found just that person.

But after a few months, the chimpanzees began to accept Jane's presence in their world. A male that Jane called David Greybeard was the first to venture into her camp. He appeared one day to reach the ripe red fruit of an oil nut palm that grew nearby when he saw something better — bananas on Jane's camp table. He snatched the bananas and took them back into the bush. Slowly, other chimps began to approach the camp and Jane was able to begin observing them up close. What she saw would change primatology forever.

In October 1960, Jane watched as two chimps stripped the leaves off twigs and poked the twigs into the holes of a termite nest to fish for food. It was the first glimpse of another creature making and using tools. Until that time, humans were thought to be the only toolmakers. After Jane reported her findings to Louis Leakey, he famously responded, "Now we must redefine 'tool,' redefine 'man,' or accept chimpanzees as humans."

Jane Goodall was born in London on April 3, 1934, and grew up in Bournemouth, in the south of England. When she was just over a year old, Jane's father gave her a toy chimpanzee named Jubilee, which she still has to this day.

Her favorite books as a child included Dr. Dolittle, The Jungle Book and the Tarzan series. By the time she was 11, Jane dreamed of going to Africa in a time when it wasn't thought the proper thing for a young woman to do. But Jane's mother Vanne told her, "Jane, if you really want something, and if you work hard, take advantage of the opportunities, and never give up, you will somehow find a way."

In 1965, Jane earned her Ph.D. in Ethology from Cambridge University, and in 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation to provide ongoing support for field research on wild chimpanzees. Today, the mission of the Jane Goodall Institute is to advance the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things. The Institute is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. It also is widely recognized for establishing innovative community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa, and the Roots & Shoots education program, which since 1991 has registered more than 6,000 groups in 87 countries.

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