Monkey Business

Jane Goodall’s route to fame has been unlikely in the extreme.

Who would have dreamed that such an unlikely and solitary pursuit — studying chimpanzees in Tanzania — would transform her into an international celebrity?

Yet today her recognition factor is higher than that of practically any other scientist in the world. For instance, when Goodall was traveling this year in Seoul, a young Korean woman walked up to her out of the blue and asked, “How’s Fifi?”

Not only had the woman instantly recognized Goodall, but she knew that Fifi had just given birth to a little baby named Fred. Both Fifi and Fred are chimpanzees in the Gombe research area of Tanzania, and they are world famous in their own right, thanks to National Geographic articles and TV specials.

But not as famous as Dr. Goodall herself.

Fame was not the point back in 1957 when Goodall first saved up her waitressing money to travel to Africa.

She wanted to live out a dream she had since childhood: to live, like Tarzan, in the wild and immerse herself in the world of animals.

But after all of those decades of research, Goodall realized that in order to save chimpanzees and their habitat, public education was her most powerful weapon. And that meant that Goodall had to become more than a scientist. She must be a spokeswoman.

“It’s payback time for me now,” said Goodall by phone from another lecture date in Burbank, Calif. “I had all of those wonderful years of doing exactly what I wanted to do in the forest. And now, realizing the mess we’re in, I am trying to make use of the wisdom I acquired from the forest and trees and chimps.”

The “mess” is the world’s overall environmental degradation; more specifically, the degradation of the chimpanzee habitat in Africa. Goodall estimates that the total chimp population is about 100,000, down from probably 2 million in 1900.

Loss of habitat is one problem.

“How do you save even the tiny Gombe National Park when literally all around it all the trees are gone?” said Goodall. “It’s like an oasis.”

The other problem is more gruesome. More people than ever are hunting chimps for meat.

“In central Africa the logging companies are making roads, and the roads make it possible for hunters to go way into the forest and bring out the meat to the towns,” said Goodall. “It is illegal, but it doesn’t matter. Everyone prefers it (chimp meat), and they will pay more for it in central and west Africa.”

The chimps aren’t the only species suffering. Goodall said hunters are “killing everything, down to the bats, the monkeys and the birds.”

Goodall is concerned not only with her chimps, but with the larger environmental threats around the globe. For that reason, she and her Jane Goodall Institute have started Roots & Shoots, an environmental program for youth from kindergarten to college. Under the guidance of the Jane Goodall Institute, local groups or classes are organizing to address local concerns.

“It’s amazing,” said Goodall. “We have over 1,000 groups in North America and groups in 50 countries around the world. New ones are starting all the time. The people I’m sitting next to on a plane may have a child, and I tell them about Roots & Shoots. I send them home with a brochure, and they go tell a teacher about it.”

By the way, sitting on a plane is what Goodall does the most these days. The 64-year-old primatologist has homes in Bournemouth, England, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where her son and grandchildren live. But she claims her real home is the airplane, where she flies from meeting to research site to lecture.

Goodall will fly into Spokane next week to present her famous slide show and lecture at the Spokane Opera House on Friday night. The lecture will focus on what she calls the “long-running soap opera” of her Gombe chimp research, as well as Roots & Shoots and her many other environmental interests around the world.

In a departure unique to her Spokane appearance, Goodall’s lecture will be preceded by a 30-minute musical performance from the local drum and dance ensemble Malidoma. This group, led by artistic director Michael Moon Bear, specializes in the drum music and rhythms of Africa and the Caribbean.

Matthew Rotchford of Spacific Events in Portland, which is promoting the event, said he wanted to combine the arts and the sciences for an evening that offers a bit more than the standard lecture. Malidoma, with its African-based rhythms, seemed like a perfect fit.

This sidebar appeared with the story: CHIMP FACTS What Jane Goodall learned in her research: * Chimps create and use tools. * They use plants for medicinal purposes. * Most of their emotions, including joy, sadness and despair, are similar to our own.

PREVIEW Jane Goodall and Malidoma will appear Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House. Tickets are $42, $35 and $25, available at G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.