Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall, an English ethologist (a specialist in animal behavior) and animal rights activist, is famous for her studies of the chimpanzees of the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania, Africa. She is credited with the first recorded observation of chimps eating meat and using and making tools. As a result of her studies, Goodall concluded that chimpanzees are an advanced species closely related to humans. Her observations have forced scientists to redefine the characteristics once considered as solely human traits.

Goodall has also become an advocate for the ethical treatment of animals. In an effort to educate the public on the subject, she has appeared on American and British television and published five major works. Her first book, In the...