Jane Goodall began her famous chimpanzee study in 1960. On 14 July that year, she arrived at Gombe Stream National Park in what was then Tanganyika, now Tanzania, to observe wild chimpanzees.
The project was arranged by palaeontologist Louis Leakey, who believed that studying living great apes could illuminate the behavior of humanity’s early ancestors. Goodall initially had no university degree, but her patient field observations soon produced findings that challenged major scientific assumptions. She recorded chimpanzees using and modifying tools, hunting meat, and maintaining complex social relationships.
Her earliest work focused on the Kasakela chimpanzee community. Rather than numbering the animals, she gave them names, including David Greybeard, Goliath, and Flo. The research eventually became one of the longest continuous studies of wild animals. Goodall later earned a PhD at Cambridge, and her Gombe observations helped establish her as one of the world’s leading primatologists.