Page 28 - FWG Issue 3_April_2022

Nature

WOMEN HAVE IT. OK?

B Y JAMES CLARKE
Francesco Ungaro, Unsplash

t is interesting how women have taken chimps would scatter in terror as soon as no previous university degree. This is
over the science of ethology, the they detected a human. something Cambridge had condoned
scientific study of animal behaviour. only seven times in its centuries’ old
IThe trend began a short time after Leakey had noticed Goodall’s unusual history.
Jane Goodall’s 1971 landmark book about ability to patiently and intelligently
chimpanzees, In the Shadow of Man. observe, and her deep and inquisitive Within 11 years of first setting foot in
interest in animals. He suggested she Africa, Cambridge awarded Goodall a
Goodall began her celebrated might like to take up the challenge of doctorate in ethology. It hadn’t been
chimpanzee research project by living studying the chimp society. easy. Her mentors at Cambridge were
with a wild chimp community alongside aghast when she gave her chimps names.
Tanzania’s thickly forested Gombe Stream It was to take incredible patience. Day She was told to assign them numbers, not
on Lake Tanganyika. after day she edged a few centimetres names. They said ethologists who gave
nearer where the chimps were most names to their study animals could no
A Bournemouth girl, she’d been invited active, but without reacting to them in longer be objective. Assigning human
to Kenya for a holiday and there had any way. She wanted them to treat her as feelings and emotions to non-humans
met the famous palaeontologist, Louis some inanimate object – like a tree stump is known as anthropomorphising and
Leakey. Leakey was at the time studying but all the time she made notes. anthropomorphism during most of the
chimpanzees, believing they would 20th century, was a deadly sin among
provide an insight into the way pre- In 1965, Cambridge University, impressed scientists.
humans survived. But he and his students by her papers, allowed her to study for
were making no headway because the a PhD in ethology even though she had Goodall, while respectful of science and

Fourways Gardens • 26 • April 2022