B.C. wildlife biologist reflects on legacy of Jane Goodall
BC Today host Michelle Elliot speaks with B.C. wildlife biologist Alexandra Morton about the influence and legacy of conservationist Jane Goodall, dead at 91. Morton, a whale biologist and author, says Goodall was seen as “a guiding light” for her and women in science.
Hi, it’s Anand Ram from CBC’s science team.
While famous for studying chimpanzees, Goodall didn’t stay an impartial observer. Ammie Kalan, a Canadian primatologist I interviewed after Goodall died, called her an “advocate for the Earth” who “lived her life trying to explain the importance of valuing the natural world.”
That activism, her friend and colleague Kerry Bowman told me, began early. We told you Goodall gave names to chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania — but that move drew sharp criticism at the time as unscientific. That didn’t stop her, though.
At a 1986 primatology conference in Chicago, she was shocked by presentations on the scale of deforestation. She said: “I arrived at the conference as a scientist. I left as an activist.” Following that, in 1977, she formed the Jane Goodall Institute to twin-track both study and conservation efforts of chimpanzees.
In 1991, she formed Roots & Shoots, a youth-oriented environmental and social justice program. Through the Institute, she would help found a sanctuary and be named a UN Messenger for Peace.
Her activism would continue for decades through speaking tours and community organization, reinforcing what Bowman called her ability to “see the beauty in non-human life.”
