Goodall: from scientist to activist

By DANIEL PERSON Chronicle Staff Writer

When Jane Goodall attended a scientific conference in 1986, she arrived a scientist and left an activist.

ERIK PETERSEN/CHRONICLE Dr. Jane Goodall, primatologist, environmentalist and humanitarian, holds her mascot "Mr. H" during a press conference Sunday at Montana State University. Goodall will deliver the MSU Friends of the Stegner Lecture, "Reason for Hope" 6 p.m. Monday at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. At the conference, the famed primatologist was “truly shocked” to learn of the deteriorating habitat of chimpanzees in Africa. The chimp population on that continent had dropped to one-quarter of what it had been in 1960, when she began to study the animals.

By the mid-1980s, Goodall had already brought on a sea-change in how people studied animals, especially primates. She broke convention by giving the chimpanzees she was studying in Gombe, Tanzania, names instead of numbers. She was the first person to document chimpanzees making tools, a task once thought exclusively human. And her research showed that chimpanzees n who even accepted her into a troop -- were complex social and emotional animals.

Today, Goodall considers fields of study like animal psychology part of her legacy.

But since that conference in 1986, Goodall has turned to a broader mission of preserving habitat and promoting other environmental causes, and has come to Bozeman in hopes of inspiring the students of Montana State University and others to take the cause up with her.

“We have compromised (young people’s) future, but there is something that can be done about it,” she said at a press conference Sunday. “When young people are inspired to take action … I am so impressed by their energy.”

Goodall will deliver this year’s MSU Friends of Stegner Lecture at 6 p.m. Monday night at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. The title of her lecture, “Reason for Hope,” comes from her belief that the world is in peril, but things can be turned around, she said.

Human intelligence, the “indomitable human spirit” and the resilience of nature give her that hope, she said.

She brought to the press conference a stuffed gray-and-white monkey named Mr. H. The monkey was named after Gary Haun, an ex-Marine who went blind and decided to become a magician. When he performs, his audience has no idea he is blind until he tells them, Goodall said, an example of what can be overcome by humans if they try.

One thing she intends to emphasize tonight is the Roots and Shoots program, founded by the Jane Goodall Institute and particularly appropriate for students, she said. The program urges youth around the world to work toward environmental goals in their own communities and to push back against the economic pressures that lead to destruction of wildlife and habitat.

While she said she did not know enough about the Gallatin Valley to say what should be done to protect the environment here, she emphasized the importance of college students getting involved in that kind of work.

“Roots and Shoots is particularly compelling” to young adults, she said. “These students, when they get involved, know where they are going. … Hopefully, we will reach a critical mass.”

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