Research
and the Jane Goodall Institute
Gombe Stream Research Center :
In 1960 Jane Goodall began her pioneering research at the Kakombe
Valley in Tanzania. In 1967 the Gombe Stream Research Center (GSRC)
was founded to coordinate the study of the wild chimpanzee populations.
Gombe National Park was not established until 1968. GSRC is located
on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, 15km north of the town
of Kigoma and is accessible only by boat.
Field research at GSRC has focused on the behavior of two communities
of eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii); the Kakombe
community and the Mitumba community which was habituated much
later in the early 1990s. Studies of several troops of baboons
(Papio anubis) also began at GSRC in the early 1970s as well as
much shorter studies of red colobus monkeys (Colobus badius tephrosceles).
Research has been concentrated in both the central and more recently
northern portions of Gombe National Park, although it is also
known that there is at least one unhabituated community of chimpanzees
currently living in the southern area of the park. The total population
of chimpanzees within the boundary of the park has been estimated
at roughly 150, although no official census has been conducted
to date.
An endeavor that many predicted would last only a few months
has now become the longest running field study of any animal species
in their natural surroundings; over 40 years. Research at GSRC
continues to this day, mostly by a trained team of Tanzanians
and with tremendous moral support from the Tanzanian government.
Jane
Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies At the University
of Minnesota
Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies was established
at the University of Minnesota in 199 5 by Dr. Anne Pusey, Distinguished
McKnight Professor in the College of Biological Sciences Department
of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior.
Pusey, who earned a B.S. in zoology from Oxford University and
Ph.D. in behavioral biology from Stanford University, worked in
Gombe under D r. Goodall's direction in the 1970s. During the
1980s, as Goodall's focus shifted from analysis of data to conservation
and education, Pusey became more involved in research and data
analysis. At the time the data, nearly 40 years of Goodall's journals,
photos, and slides, was st ored on open shelves in Goodal's home
in Dar es Salaam. In 1995, Goodall, Pusey, and Donald Buford,
Director of the Jane Goodall Institute, decided to move the records
to the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota
for safekeeping.
Dr. Pusey's goal is to digitize the journals and photos to preserve
them and to make them available though the Internet to scholars
as well as school children and the lay public. Work is under way
on the journals, and a fundraising effort has been launched to
cover the costs. Mea nwhile, the Imaging Center at the College
of Biological Sciences has scanned all of Goodall's color slides
and has begun work on thousands o f black and white photos. In
addition, staff members are copying 600 hours of videotape shot
in Gombe since 1993. All of this material will become part of
an online database.
The goals of the Center for Primate Studies are to:
- Preserve, organize, and digitize all the paper data (about
320,000 pages);
- Collect and digitize slides, black and white photographs,
and video of the Gombe chimpanzees
- Create a relational database of all of these materials
- Analyze this data to advance knowledge about the complex
lives of chimpanzees.
Field research projects undertaken by members of the center include:
- An investigation of meat-sharing and male mating strategies
- A four-year study of the development and acquisition of termite-fishing
skills in infant to ten-year-old chimpanzees
- A study of vegetation change in and around Gombe National
Park over the last 60 years
- A study of social relationships between females
- A study of paternity and genetic relationships among the
chimpanzees using DNA extracted from feces and hair shed in
nests.
Current projects utilizing the long-term data include:
- Female dispersal and inbreeding avoidance
- Sex differences in diet
- Group and individual ranging patterns
At any one time, the staff of the Center consists of Director
Anne Pusey, Research Administrator Joann Schumacher-Stankey, and
a number of g raduate students and post-docs and assistants.
ChimpanZoo
Founded in 1984, ChimpanZoo is an international research program
dedicated to the study of chimpanzees in zoos and other captive
settings. Approximately 130 chimpanzees are involved in ChimpanZoo,
making it the largest ape research program ever undertaken. Trained
by participating zoos and the Jane Goodall Institute, students,
caretakers and volunteers record behavioral observations and work
with zoo keepers to improve the lives of captive chimpanzees and
compare their behavior to that of chimps in the wild.
The results of the studies are presented at an annual, week-long
ChimpanZoo conference, the location of which changes each year.
It serves as a forum for discussing and exchanging new information
and ideas. The conference attracts the academic and zoological
communities, as well as the public. Guest lecturers are also invited
to speak about their latest research, and findings are published
in scholarly journals. The database is also accessible to zoos,
students and instructors.
ChimpanZoo Goals:
- To increase public awareness about the plight of chimpanzees
and to increase understanding of chimpanzee behavior.
- To assist zoos in their efforts to improve the habitats and
conditions for captive chimpanzees.
- To facilitate the exchange of information on ways to enrich
the lives of captive chimpanzees.
- To compile behavioral data for an international database.
For more information about ChimpanZoo, please visit the ChimpanZoo
web site.
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