Jane Goodall : Still Hard at Work for the Chimps Today , she continues her efforts through her foundation and her new book . Transcript of radio broadcast : 17 November 2009 VOICE onE : I ' m Doug Johnson . VOICE TWO : And I ' m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English . Jane Goodall is one of the most well known scientists in the world . She has spent most of her career studying wild chimpanzees in a protected area of Tanzania called Gombe National Park . Over the past fifty years , she has made very important discoveries about the social behavior of chimpanzees . Today , Miz Goodall spends most of her time traveling around the world speaking about wildlife protection and working to build support for her foundation . She recently wrote a book about endangered animals . ( MUSIC ) VOICE onE : Ever since she was a child growing up in England , Jane Goodall dreamed of working with wild animals . JANE GOODALL : " As long as I can remember , it was animals , animals . Even before I could talk , I was watching earthworms and things , reading Doctor Doolittle books , wanting to learn the language of animals . Then finding the books about Tarzan , falling in love with Tarzan . " When she was about eleven years old , she decided that she wanted to go to Africa to live with and write about animals . But this was not the kind of thing young women growing up in the nineteen forties usually did . JANE GOODALL : " Apart from my mother , everybody laughing , she would say if you really want something , you work hard , you take advantage of opportunity , you never give up , you find a way . So , eventually a school friend invited me to Africa . " VOICE TWO : In nineteen fifty - seven , Jane Goodall traveled to Africa . She soon met the well - known scientist Louis Leakey and began working for him as an assistant . He later asked her to study a group of chimpanzees living by a lake in Tanzania . Very little was known about wild chimpanzees at the time . Mister Leakey believed that learning more about these animals could help explain the evolutionary past of humans . JANE GOODALL : " That led to this extraordinary opportunity to study , not just any animal , but chimpanzees . I wouldn ' t have aspired to that . I mean , I had no degree . I wasn ' t qualified , I thought . He thought differently . " VOICE onE : Louis Leakey thought Jane Goodall would be a perfect candidate for the job . She had spent much of her time reading and writing about animals . And , she was not a trained biologist . He believed this would keep her mind open to new discoveries . Observing chimps was not easy work . They were very shy and would run away whenever Miz Goodall came near . She learned to watch them from far away using binoculars . Over time , she slowly gained their trust . She gave the chimps human names such as David Graybeard , Flo and Fifi . VOICE TWO : Giving the chimps human names was a very unusual method . Most researchers would have identified the animals using numbers instead of names . But Miz Goodall believed that to understand animal behavior , the observer had to see the animals as individuals , not as interchangeable objects . Watching the chimps , she learned that they have very different personalities , with complex family and social relationships . Jane Goodall in 1964 They ate vegetables and fruits . But she observed that they were also meat eaters and skilled hunters . A few weeks later , she made an even more surprising discovery . She saw chimps making and using tools to help them trap insects . JANE GOODALL : " I suppose the first really significant thing that the world heard about was chimpanzees using and making tools . It was thought that only humans did this and that this set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom . " VOICE onE : Jane Goodall wrote Louis Leakey to tell him about her discovery . He responded by saying : " Now we must redefine ' tool ', redefine ' man ', or accept chimpanzees as human . " Up to this point , Jane Goodall still did not have a degree . She returned to England to begin working towards a doctorate in animal behavioral science . She received her degree from Cambridge University in nineteen sixty - five . ( MUSIC ) VOICE TWO : Jane Goodall spent many years studying chimps in this area of Tanzania . Today , the research program at Gombe represents one of the longest continuous wildlife studies in the world . Miz Goodall has written many books for adults and children about wild chimpanzees . Her scientific research was published in the book " The Chimpanzees of Gombe : Patterns of Behavior . " It explains her discoveries about chimp behavior , including the extremely close relationship between mother and child . She describes the chimps ' intelligence , their hunting activities and their sometimes extremely aggressive behavior . VOICE onE : Baby chimpanzees are cared for at the Jane Goodall Institute ' s Tchimpounga sanctuaryAlthough she has spent her life trying to protect chimps in their natural environment , these animals are still very much in danger . Miz Goodall says when she began working in Tanzania , there were between one and two million chimps in the wild . Today , she says there are about three hundred thousand at the most . JANE GOODALL : " It ' s different in different countries . Chimps are in twenty - one nations . In countries like Tanzania , it ' s simply habitat destruction . But when we come to where the large significant populations are , which is the Congo basin , then we find that it ' s the bush meat trade that ' s the commercial hunting of wild animals for food . And , it ' s made possible by the logging companies , foreign logging companies , opening up the forest with roads . " VOICE TWO : The destruction of the chimp ' s natural environment led Miz Goodall to give her full attention to protection efforts . She spends about three hundred days out of the year traveling around the world to discuss her many projects and goals . She talks about the efforts of the Jane Goodall Institute which she started in nineteen seventy - seven . Its aim is to increase public understanding of great apes through research , education , and activism . The group teaches local communities how to manage their resources in ways that help them economically and protect the environment . It also has a sanctuary where baby chimps whose parents have been killed by hunters can receive treatment and protection . VOICE onE : Jane Goodall and Roots & Shoots members plant treesThe Institute ' s " Roots and Shoots " program is aimed at getting young people interested in environmental activism and leadership . The group has helped connect young people who are interested in working to save animals and the environment . JANE GOODALL : " Hundreds of thousands of young people around the world can break through and make this a better world for all living things . Main message ? Each one of us makes a difference every single day we impact the world around us and if we would just think about the consequences of the little choices we make -- what we eat , wear , buy , how we interact with people , animals , the environment -- then we start making small changes and that can lead to the huge change that we must have . " ( MUSIC ) VOICE TWO : Jane Goodall ' s most recent book is called " Hope for Animals and Their World . " It tells about efforts to save several species of endangered animals . JANE GOODALL : " I think the one story that inspired this book was meeting a wonderful man called Don Mertin in New Zealand and he explaining to me how he had saved a species of bird called a Black Robin when there were just seven individuals left in the world of which only two were female and only one of whom was fertile . " VOICE onE : Some of the species Miz Goodall discusses in the book have completely disappeared in the wild , and are only alive because they have been bred in captivity . The California condor is another such example . This huge bird used to live along the West Coast of North America . By the nineteen eighties , there were only a few condors left in the wild . In a disputed decision , officials took the wild condors into captivity so that their breeding could be supervised and protected . The goal of such programs is to later place the species back into the wild . But preparing the captive bred condors to live in the wild again has not been easy . Threats the condors face in the wild include lead poisoning and mistaking trash for food . VOICE TWO : Other species in the book still exist in the wild , but are endangered . one example Jane Goodall discusses is the Golden Lion Tamarin . She tells about the hard work of a group of researchers who have successfully released these monkeys back into protected areas of Brazil . Her book shows what is possible when people come together to work cooperatively to save animals . VOICE onE : Jane Goodall has said that it is often easy to feel upset about the destruction of the natural world . But her overall message has always been one of hope . She says her hope comes from her belief in four things : the human brain , the human spirit , nature ' s strength and the energy of young people . She says people are starting to use their minds to solve the world ' s many problems and make wiser and more responsible choices . And , she believes in the strength of the human spirit which allows people to reach goals which might otherwise seem impossible . ( MUSIC ) VOICE TWO : This program was written and produced by Dana Demange . I ' m Faith Lapidus . VOICE onE : And I ' m Doug Johnson . Transcripts , MP 3 s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish . com . Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English .