Her love for chimps began when she was barely a toddler. Jane's father had bought her a chimp stuffed toy when she was a year old, and Jubilee - as her furry friend was called, became her constant companion.

Jane Goodall was fascinated with animals. At age five, she sat in a hen coop to discover "where on a chicken was there an opening big enough for an egg to come out." Tarzan and Dr. Dolittle series were her favorite books. Jane's family had little means and her father, a rare presence in her life. She was raised by her mother and grandmother, and dreamed of becoming a naturalist in Africa. But with not enough money to even attend college, she found herself working odd jobs to pay her bills.

One day in 1956, a letter arrived from a childhood friend she had not heard from since school days. The letter is post-marked Kenya, inviting her to visit. Saving and scraping tips from working as a waitress for the next five months, the young Jane Goodall finally buys a ticket to Mombasa.

What she didn't know then was what lay ahead. Half a century of stupendous, groundbreaking work on chimpanzees.

Following Her Dreams

Jane’s story is one of courage and unrelenting resolve to have her way and make her dream come true. Before 26-year-old Jane Goodall set foot in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream Reserve on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, not much was known about chimps. And Jane arrived without even an undergraduate degree and no conventional qualifications to justify her presence in Gombe.

What Jane did have was an immense love for the forest, patience and fresh eyes, meticulousness and a thirst for learning. She caught the attention of Dr. Louis Leakey, a paleoanthropologist who was studying human ancestors in Africa. Impressed by Jane's love and understanding of animals, he put her in charge of watching and documenting the behavior of chimps.

Jane's observations changed our perception of chimpanzees, and have shown how astonishingly similar chimps are to humans in many ways. Don't miss this eye-opening article earlier, and this Q&A with a youth leader from the Jane Goodall Institute.

Championing The Cause

Now, 50 years on, there is a pressing need to conserve the disappearing forests where these creatures live. But scarier still, is the threat that the chimps face from poaching for bushmeat and exposure to human diseases. There is a type of AIDS that kills chimps, they are susceptible to polio, and in general, they seem vulnerable to any infectious disease that is found among humans.

Jane travels the world today, mobilizing efforts for their conservation and especially motivating youngsters to get involved, through her Roots & Shoots program. Her message is that life is interconnected - that we cannot protect humans if we don't protect the environment they live in.

Critical Thinking : What do you think Jane Goodall means by the last statement in this article?