Jane Goodall: The Amazing Discovery

 

    Dr. Jane Goodall, also known as Dr. Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall, is a world-renowned primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist who was born in Bournemouth, England, on April 3, 1934. As a child, she loved the outdoors and animals. Jane was unable to afford college, so she attended secretarial school in South Kensington. Though Jane had no college degree or scientific training, she still managed to travel to Africa. In March 1957, Jane boarded the Kenya Castle ship to visit friends and family. While visiting, Jane met famous paleoanthropologist Dr. Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey, who offered Jane a job at the local natural history museum. Jane worked at the museum for some time before Leakey sent her to the Gombe Stream Game Reserve in Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees on July 14, 1960. While studying at the Gombe Stream Game Reserve, now known as the Gombe Stream National Park, Jane made a discovery that challenged the normal scientific ideas. She witnessed a chimpanzee, whom she named David Greybeard, using tools. She observed the chimpanzee sticking blades of stiff grass into termite holes to fish out termites. Excited about her groundbreaking observation, Jane told Dr. Leakey, to which he responded, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans”. Jane stayed in Gombe until 1975, where her research changed the view that humans were the only species capable of tool use, emotions, and complex social structures. Jane’s creative product is not only the groundbreaking research of chimpanzees, but also reshaping primatology and introducing a new way of seeing primates.

    

    We can see the creative process in Jane Goodall’s discovery through the Geneplore Model. In the generative phase, we see Jane spending months observing chimpanzee behavior, naming individuals, and noting differences. She allowed herself to consider the possibility that chimpanzees might be more creative and inventive than initially expected. In the exploratory phase, Jane repeatedly made observations by documenting repeated instances of termite fishing and behaviors among chimpanzees, refining her observations, and eventually publishing her research, which challenged the normality in the scientific community. Jane’s methodology reflects the creative process as she generated striking new ideas from observation, exploration, refinement, and then communicated them. 

    Jane’s findings relate to my focus book, The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional, by Agustín Fuentes. As Agustín argues, humans’ creativity emerged from earlier primate behaviors, such as tool use, social interaction, and environmental adaptation. Specifically, Agustín said, “The primate spark of creativity emerges from the way that primates have made social lives and social innovation central in how they deal with the pressures of the environment…in the use of objects as tools and, more important, in the creation of novel social behaviors.” (Fuentes 22). Agustín points out that primates exhibit sparks of creativity through tool use, problem-solving, and social learning. Jane’s findings reflect Agustín’s ideas through her observations of chimpanzees in Gombe using twigs to “fish” for termites. She viewed that primates could solve problems and even pass techniques to others.  Her work connects modern primate creativity to the emergence of human creativity. 

    

    Jane Goodall became increasingly active in conservation and activism after witnessing widespread deforestation in Africa and worldwide. She continues to advocate for the protection of chimpanzees and habitats through the Jane Goodall Institute, founded in 1977.

Appleton, Sarah. “Jane Goodall.” National Geographic | Education, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/jane-goodall/. Accessed 28 Sept. 2025. 

Pruitt, Sarah. “How Jane Goodall Changed How WE Study Animals.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, 30 July 2025, https://www.history.com/articles/jane-goodall-research.